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Hi everyone! I'm back with another blog tour. This time, Journey with Books is featuring a YA Paranormal Romance titled Shock Me by the author Ashley C. Harris. Read my review down below. There's also a little book excerpt for you guys. Plus a giveaway that you wouldn't want to miss.
Title: Shock Me
Author: Ashley C. Harris
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance
Release Date: September 17th, 2013
Words: 68,230 Words
Publisher: Self-Published
Language: English
Format: Digital eBook
ISBN: 978-1-30157-839-9
Book Blurb:
A promising gymnast, Donna Young is a shy, quiet nobody from the wrong side of town. The only exciting thing in life is her secret friendship with Ryan, her childhood crush. But after the accident—one that should have killed her—she discovers she has impossible powers! Why now, at sixteen, can she transform into something shocking and inhuman? Donna doesn’t know how to use her new abilities or who she can trust, but unveiling this mystery might lead to conclusions about Ryan that are deadly.
Rich kid, Ryan Applegate is the most popular guy in town. He has a face that should be on a poster in every girl’s bedroom and dates the hottest chick in school. But ever since the big explosion at the town’s power plant, Ryan has been keeping secrets of his own, that if revealed could force him to choose between his family and the girl he's forbidden to love.
As their electrifying puzzle unfolds, so unfolds a town where friends become enemies, and enemies become unrecognizable and intertwined. Tortured heroes just might be the bad guys, and Donna discovers that her and Ryan’s secrets are powerful enough to destroy everyone... including themselves.
Shock Me was the first book of the Shock Me Series which was written by Ashley C. Harris. This was the first book I've read from this author and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. It was a mixed of Fantasy and a little bit of Romance.
The plot was interesting. This is the first book in the series and when you read it you'd know that it's just an introduction. It barely touched the depth of the plot. So many questions were left unanswered that as a reader you'd be frustrated because you'd want the next book in your hands, presto.
Shock Me was written well. It was about a girl named Donna Young. She was a very ordinary teenager with ordinary teen problems like crushes, diets and fitting in. Until the day her life was changed because she discovered something unnatural within her.
I will not go into details because I think books were mostly enjoyed if you read it without spoiling it. The characters were all very interesting. Each one of them has value. I think I liked that the most. They all played a role in Donna Young's life. They were not just there as a filler.
These characters grew on me. Each one of them has flaws and some of them were selfish in the way a normal teenager was. They weren't the goody-two-shoes-it's-so unreal type of characters. The author made all of them and I mean all of them more realistic and human with their flaws and how they handled their feelings and unusual situations.
The chemistry of the main characters is fine. I figured since the blurb mentions Ryan, he was the love interest of Donna. I must say that the chemistry was there but romance was not the focus of the book. I guess the romance part will be developed in the next books of this series.
The flow of the story was nice. There were so many questions left out at the end of the book but it was okay. I just wished some secrets were revealed to make the whole thing even more exciting than it was. The whole book was enveloped with an air mystery that would keep a reader guessing.
Verdict:
Overall, Shock Me by Ashley C. Harris was a good novel. It was a really good start for a book series ad I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book to get the answers this one left. I recommend this book to all YA readers who want their next read to have a mix of fantasy, a little bit of romance and a whole dose of mystery.
Book Excerpt:
Seeing Ryan
Donna's POV:
Just as she entered the outside of the forest running trail Donna saw him: Ryan Applegate. He was too far off for her to make out his face, but she knew it was him. They were the only two that jogged this early besides Lulu, one of the elderly women from town who got her exercise in every day.
Donna slowed down a bit, running and jogging off and on, getting used to her old routine again. She looked off at some of the plants and things. Anything but stare right at Ryan dead on. They weren’t friends or anything after all, and she’d prove to be more of a dork than she already was if she kept on looking right at him.
He was wearing a new sweat suit, a bright blue one with white stripes down the sides. His hair, which he was letting grow out, shined and framed his face perfectly. His gaze concentrated on everything but her. This was their ritual.
Donna had hoped after spending a fun summer with Peter, who she had met in New York, that she wouldn’t like Ryan as much, but no, she was out of luck. When she saw him yesterday morning jogging, and then again at school that day, her heart had pounded just as quickly. Ryan looked just as good, if not better, than he had before she’d left.
After they jogged around separate paths, the path looped around and they joined each other running in the same direction. As the ritual went, they’d fall into the same pace, running together side by side, as if they were friends or something. They never talked, Ryan always listened to his music, yet he’d never go ahead and lose her.
Donna did all she could to look straight at the trees, not at his big muscular arms, or his gorgeous face that should be on every girl’s bedroom poster. After two years of this she wasn't super nervous running next to him, but it was hard not to concentrate on Ryan as being another reason besides gymnastics to be in shape.
They looped around the path, their ritual almost coming to its end, then as the path cut off at the park they both stopped together.
Author Bio:
Author and film director Ashley C. Harris resides in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. When she is not hard at work writing or dreaming up new indie films she spends her time working out, reading the bible, and going on breath-taking adventures with her sister.
The seed for becoming an author started budding for Ashley in the third grade, when she wrote her first hundred page book during her class's quite time, her teacher couldn't believe it and voiced over her that surly she'd become an author someday. Those words never left Ashley and she has been writing ever since.
Ashley loves to create young adult, science fiction, fantasy novels, and is currently working on her first steamy romance... with more to come.
Its very origenal
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