Review: I need to read book two already!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 20, 2013
While reading Cassia Leo's paranormal romance, Parallel Spirits, what intrigued me the most was the fact that I had no idea what would happen next. The plot is innovative and unpredictable, but most importantly, it's not something I've read a dozen times before. The human and spirit worlds collide in one narrative, creating a love story that has a contemporary feel, with the fantastical twist that spirits possessing unsuspecting people is a regular occurrence. Cassia Leo does a phenomenal job setting up the story, keeping me intrigued with scattered bits of information that I had to piece together to form a clearer idea of the story as a whole.Of the five central characters, Mara and Belinda alternate as narrators. The narrative jumps through time, spanning Mara's lengthy spiritual timeline up to her present involvement with Belinda, or more specifically, Belinda's love life, which finds her torn between her longtime friend, Frankie and new love interest, Conor. Unlike your typical stress-inducing love triangle, Parallel Spirits adds another level of complication with the interference of the two carrier spirits. Unlike with Cassia Leo's Shattered Hearts series, I had no clear favorite of the two possible love matches, although this was probably because I second-guessed each of their motives. The plot constantly kept me guessing until I couldn't help reading more into every suspicious comment and action.While I don't typically read a lot of paranormal romances, I enjoyed Parallel Spirits because the concept of carrier spirits intermingling with the human race is an interesting and different concept, with the closest possible comparison being Stephenie Meyer's The Host, and even then, the similarities are minor. It's almost like getting two stories in one because, while the central plot is the love triangle between Belinda, Frankie, and Conor, there is an equally important subplot involving Mara and Darius. I was so caught up in the drama unfolding between the aforementioned trio that it was an unexpected jolt every time Mara re-enters the picture.As the narrative progresses, the paranormal elements become more prominent until every character is submerged in the world Leo has created. Aside from a bit of action towards the book's end, Parallel Spirits devotes much of its space to further explaining the mythology of the carrier spirits. While I understood what was going on for the most part, I feel like this book would definitely benefit from a second reading, so that I could go back and pick up on all the clues that I initially missed. Even after all the setup provided by Parallel Spirits, there are still many questions left unanswered, including the cliffhanger ending, which made me all the more anxious to find out what happens in book two.