Review: Interesting, well-developed story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 31, 2013
I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for writing an honest review.**********Potential Spoiler Section**********Synopsis: A young woman who has seen ghosts her whole life finally interacts with one. He leads her on an adventure that involves physics, psychiatry, time travel, and much more. During this adventure they are brought together and discover a deep love between them. They face several devastating crossroads including having to decide between loved ones and, as if that wasn't hard enough, choosing between each other and the rest of the world. In the end, they must have faith that they were brought together for a reason and must decide how selfish they can truly be. Can they stand by and watch the world fall to pieces because they cannot risk losing each other?**********End of spoilers**********I'm not going to lie---romance novels are not my thing. It's nothing against the genre, it's just not my cup of tea. But this book has a well-balanced plot that isn't tossed aside once the couple comes together. The story moves a bit slow at first while you're getting to know the main character, Lyra. She's just finished high school and is trying to figure out her life when Zack enters the picture. But once they get to know each other, the story moves along at a nice clip. You don't feel like anything is rushed or overly harped on.You can tell the author has a good sense of her characters; not just the central couple. Most of the supporting cast is described well enough that you have a good idea what each person is like. And the important ones don't fade away as the story line progresses past them. You know where they end up without having it told to you explicitly. As to the main characters, they are unique and stable characters. This isn't to say they don't grow or change throughout the novel. But you don't feel like the author couldn't decide how to write them. I was particularly pleased with the leading man. Too often Prince Charming is written as a guy who can't make up his mind if he's good or bad. But this one is pure good. He's a little rough around the edges at first, but considering he has no idea why things are happening to him, that's understandable. Once he's drawn to Lyra, there are no mind games, no backtracking. He's in completely. And she doesn't spend time wondering what he sees in her; she just believes there's something special there.But it's not all puppies and rainbows for these lovers. While they never doubt their love for each other, there are so many bigger things going on around them. Things that they don't know how to handle. There aren't many authority figures in the book---only one set of parents and they don't seem to exert much control. And there's a boss who . . . well, I'll let you find out. So they are essentially on their own. They are strong, though, and their bond is an admirable one. They stick together till the end.The story line is unpredictable. I'll admit I don't read book summaries often before diving in; I like to be surprised. But regardless you will not guess where the book is headed. I was completely floored that an actual discussion of quantum physics took place (and grateful for the "For Dummies" recap by one of the characters). Most authors don't bother to explain how time travel works. Or, if they do, it's in a bunch of made-up words so you can't really argue against it. But, to be honest, I have no clue about wormholes, so I can't give an opinion on how solid her explanation is. There are even more unexpected moments from there; I admit I had no idea how it was going to end up.  When you get to the end, you sit there for a moment processing. Not every book makes you keep thinking when it's over. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I will say it leaves you a little speechless.My only real con for this book (and why I gave it only four stars) is that it could use a good line-edit. If you read a lot of self-published e-books, you are used to this. It's difficult to find people who are skilled editors (and are also removed from the writing process) to proof it thoroughly. There are some points where typos here are distracting. The hardest are misused words---i.e., stark for stork. Really it comes down to your own ability to tolerate something that hasn't been professionally polished. For most people, I believe, the errors here won't cause many serious speed bumps along the way. But if you are a writer or editor or English teacher, you might find the mistakes a bit difficult to ignore. Because I found the story interesting to me, I was able to quiet my editor voice enough to adjust and focus on the plot.