Shade

By: Jeri Smith-Ready

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Love ties them together. Death can't tear them apart....

When her boyfriend dies a most untimely death, Aura - who can see ghosts - is forced to reconsider her relationship with the living and dead in Shade.

©2010 Jeri Smith-Ready (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

great story

i hope the charactors mature as the series goes forward. I will be reading it!

Engaging idea

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I'm not one to listen to female voice actors. Primarily because when they do male voices it sounds somewhat strange. Overall the performance of this book was well done, and the story was engaging enough to keep the play button going. The story of this book was very interesting, and the backdrop for the story is very unique.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Shade?

One bad thing leads to the next. This story continued to develop very well, but I found that the opener for the story was the best part of the book. The setup for everything that happens was intriguing to say the last.

Could you see Shade being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Copy cast of Twilight. You'd have another craze on your hands in an instant.

Not the same old paranormal romance

I ended up really enjoying this one!

For the first little bit I was a little worried. Aura, the main character, is 16 and head over heels for her 17-year-old boyfriend, Logan. He's in a band and she's his biggest groupie, and listening to a groupie gush for nine hours wasn't what I signed up for.

Luckily, that's just the intro. There's not much about the plot in the blurb up at the top here, so I'll add a little more background info. Sixteen years ago, "The Shift" occurred. For no reason anyone understands, everyone born "post-Shift" can see and hear ghosts, and the world is full of them. Ghosts can't pass on to the next life if they have unresolved issues, and Aura's aunt is a lawyer who deals exclusively in cases designed to help ghosts find closure. In the US, a new government agency exists to help contain problematic ghosts, and they're hot to recruit the first post-Shift children as they approach 18. Government agencies obsessed with containment might cause a few raised eyebrows, but after all, it's 'for the children.'

Aura helps out at her aunt's firm sometimes after school, translating for the adults who can't see or hear the ghostly clients. Mostly she's annoyed by ghosts and would rather hang out with her friends, moon over her boyfriend, and try not to notice the cute new boy at school. She knows she was one of the very first kids born post-Shift, but somebody had to be.

That's where the book starts out, anyway. But then someone she cares about dies, and that changes everything. What happens when the ghost of someone you love is in danger of being branded as problematic, and that government agency is paying more attention to you than you'd like? What started out as a groupie book ended up being a fresh take on a love triangle, and I'm very interested to see what happens next!

The narrator was great. She juggled American and a Scottish accents pretty convincingly, and reads very well.

Overall, interesting teen romance, but I will warn that this was on the racier side of teen paranormals! Sex, drugs, and drinking come up regularly. If I had one complaint, it was that at times this seemed to be trying a little too hard to seem edgy.

ONE OF MY FAVES BROUGHT TO LIFE!!

This was my first paranormal romance. I first bought the books at a thrift store and fell in love, about 10 years ago now. I was pleasantly surprised to find them on audible, last month. The narration was great. Khristine Hvam brought the characters to life. I can't wait to finish listening to the series!! Love listening to my favorite stories while cleaning!!

Really enjoyed it...

I just loved this series. I had never heard of this author before when I bought it but I am so glad I did. I can't wait for the last book now which I believe comes out May 2012. The narrator does an excellent job also.

Meech13

I enjoyed the story immensely,. It took no effort to become involved with the characters immediately. The moment I heard the last word in the novel, I started searching for book 2 ! I highly recommend this book.

Just terrible

I bought this based on the reviews -- but was very disappointed in the quality of the book. It is really for the young adult audience, which I didn't realize. Very much a supernatural romance for teenagers.

Young Adult fiction..

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I don't like books about teens. When I picked this up I had no clue this was a YA romance. Sorry, when the whiny teen character's thoughts and voice began whining about seeing ghosts, I realized I'd made a mistake in buying this one. DELETE.