Geared toward YA, this book follows twins Hayley and Taylor who use their twin abilities to solve crimes. It’s mystery/thriller with a touch of esoteric/supernatural, which I think is a great balance. The plotting is easy to follow, and there are some great one-liners and asides that are “blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em.” It seems as if there are only two books in the series and they were originally written nearly a decade ago. The author certainly moved on to different genres, but these were unique and refreshing. For a full review, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for a digital ARC.

I read in ENVY , in 2011 - searching for review to post. Everyone of Greg Olson’s books are amazing. His writing enraptures you immediately.

The first in the Empty Coffin YA series, A good read though a little slow at the beginning but a good twist at the end. I liked the ‘paranormal’ element to the book and look forward to seeing how it develops in later books in the series

I love Gregg Olsen's books, and once again wasn't disappointed. I love the way he weaves a plot, leaving the reader exhausted from excitement at the end! Recommended.

Wow!! This book was awesome! I couldn't put down my Kindle. I was left with such a book hangover, that I had to wait a day to leave my review.

Katelyn Berkley was an unhappy teenager. Her death left her small hometown of Port Gamble, Washington in shock. The twin daughter's of the Berkley's neighbors, Taylor and Hayley Ryan, don't think that her death was a suicide though. Yes, they knew that Katie wasn't the same girl they played with when they were younger. But the twins share an extraordinary gift that let them communicate with the dead.

When the girls were only 5 years old, they were in a horrible bus accident that killed five people and left the twins in a coma for 31 days. Katie and her mother, Sandy, walked away without any injuries, but Sandy has suffered from survivor's guilt ever since. After the accident, the girls realized their gift. They've never told anyone but each other. Both girls can touch an object and can visualize everything the person was doing. They each have their own way of recreating exactly what happened. Hayley only has to touch someone else's belongings and she can vividly see what that person was doing. Taylor has to be immersed in water to shut out noise to recreate the same incident.

When Katie starts leaving the twins messages, hinting that there's more to the story then what the town is talking about. The twins know that they need to find her killer.

But someone very close by doesn't want Katie's truth revealed. What started out as fun for someone, went very, very wrong.

Will the girls get to the bottom of Katie's death and punish the person responsible?

A must read!!!

Another good book by this author! It's well written and entertaining.
I liked the fleshed out characters, the solid plot and the paranormal side was interesting.
Can't wait to read another book by this author.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I have read quite a few books by Gregg Olsen before and really enjoyed them, so I didn't hesitate requesting Beneath Her Skin. Unfortunately, what I didn't know was that the book could be categorized as a paranormal YA thriller. While the paranormal part didn't bother me so much, the YA part did. Nonetheless, I gave the book a chance anyway but couldn't get further than a few pages in and DNF. I think this book would be better suited to preteens.

I really enjoyed this one! First time reading this author and I'm so glad I have the next book to get stuck into. The story is based around a young girl that has died although it looks suspiciously like suicide the death is ruled as an accident, twins Hayley and Taylor begin to do a little digging to find out the real truth of what happened to their friend. Although this was the main plot there are lots of other stories going on in the background relating to some brilliant memorable characters. A really good read.

This is the first book in the HayTay series and I read the second one first. Both books could be read as stand alone books, but it was nice to have some information filled in after having already read the second book (Dying to be Her). The main characters are likeable and you quickly become invested in their history and want to see them succeed. With many twists and turns throughout the story, it makes you continue to flip the pages to find out what happens. If you enjoy easy to read thrillers, this is for you.

I have enjoyed other titles by the author and absolutely love Megan Carpenter series. However, this wasn't for me. I couldn't connect with the characters, paranormal angle or the writing . I think this series will appeal more to fans of YA thrillers.

I ended up reading the Port Gamble series out of order and read book two, Dying to be Her, first. And I am really glad I did that (even though it was a complete accident!).

Beneath Her Skin gives a lot of focus and background on the Ryan twins and their unique abilities. Unfortunately for me, this took away from the mystery and dragged the story down. It's a unique twist, but the integration didn't feel cohesive.

That being said, book two moves away from this and finds a stronger voice so I am glad that I read them out of order and will continue with the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the gifted ecopy.

2.5

When 15 year old twins Hayley and Taylor discover their old friend has died in an accident, they become suspicious that maybe it wasn't an accident at all. The twins share a secret that nobody knows about them, they can get messages and feelings others can't.
This book would be awesome for kids 16 and up to read, it's an entertaining read and there is no extreme violence. I'm 63 and enjoyed the story so much I read the next book.

Not read any of Gregg Olsen before, but will definitely will in the future . Great story and characters couldn't put it down. Cant wait to red the next one.

This was my first Gregg Olsen and even though it was an interesting read, it was also confusing and had a lot of characters.. Mayb I was not in a head space for a thriller like this, but the constant head scratching was a turn off for me.. Ended up DNFing. Hopefully I can pick it up later..

This book was very different for me. I failed to read that it was a new series (Port Gamble) and I kept expecting Megan Carpenter’s name to come up. Because the author is Gregg Olsen, I knew that I needed to read the book. His intro “Like truth, evil comes in all sorts of flavors. Some bitter. Some deceptively sweet,” made me continue onward.

The story centers around the death of Katelyn Berkley that is ruled an accident. Twins Haley and Taylor Ryan, who also possess psychic abilities, see more to it than that. They begin investigating on their own and communicating with Katelyn to find out exactly what happened. Port Gable isn’t the nice little town that people perceive it to be. There are many secrets that, when divulged, will open a very twisty, suspenseful story.

You will not be disappointed reading this. Come on, it’s Gregg Olsen! Thank you #Bookcouture and #NetGalley for the AC!

According to Goodreads, “This book was originally published as ENVY. This new edition has been re-edited since its publication in 2011.”
Having read the book’s summary, I expected this story to be told from the viewpoint of two twin sisters, who investigate the so-called suicide of a teenager at their school. It also says these twins can talk to the dead.

Ok

I love paranormal and I love thrillers and mashing them together can lead to a great story. This, however, really missed the mark for me. This is not listed as a YA book but it had so much teen slang that it felt like it was trying to market to the younger crowd.

The characters were all superficial. No one was interesting or likable, not even the twins. The plot line was full of holes (how are they talking to the dead when information just falls in their lap when they are underwater or sleeping?), was very slow and tried to build suspense by holding information back and then dropping in information with little to no explanation. This just felt all over the place for me.

*Spoiler Alert* And why the heck do the people responsible for the girl’s death get off with a slap to the wrist basically, but the reporter gets run over?!?! What?? And is that what we are putting out there these days? When someone tries to expose you, you just kill them? But you let actual bullies roam around living their lives. Ick! I wanted to give this book a 1 just for those plot lines!

The parts I loved about this book all revolve around the setting. Having lived in Bremerton when I was younger, I loved having so many references to that area.
I am going to move on to Book 2 because I think there is a good story here and I’ve heard great things about this author. I’m hopeful that it’s a better read and I can get some good character development.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Bookoutoure for providing this book. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy and all views expressed are only my honest opinion.

This was the second book of Gregg's that I have read. The first was based off a true story so I was hooked based off how he writes. Once again I was hooked from the beginning of this book! I can't quite explain what it is but his writing just keeps me wanting to know what happens.
I was a rad confused at first of who the story was actually about. Once it got into the book more I definitely was interested in the twins background!

While something's were off like the kids texting. Not sure kids these days really text that way. Now I hate to say some do act this way from personal experience. I know some reviews don't agree with how the teens were presented. Not all kids are respectful unfortunately.

I definitely wanting to see where this series leads!

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Beneath Her Skin by Gregg Olsen.

3 Star Read- This is book 1 of the Empty Coffin series, this follows a teenager named Katelyn Berkely has been found dead in her bath tub, the whole community is shock to its core. all signs of her death point to suicide but to make matters even worse, she survived a bus crash a mere 10 years ago... Hayley and Taylor Ryan are identical twins whom grew up with her and have spent the last decade getting over the crash. It turns out that the twins have shared a secret all these years and that they can hear the dead, then it is clear that Katelyn is communicating with them. Whilst the town believes it was a tragic accident.... something much deeper and darker lies behind Katelyn’s death.... this was such a dark compelling YA thriller!

3 stars ⭐⭐⭐

Beneath Her Skin is a YA mystery novel with a paranormal element set in the small town of Port Gamble. Our protagonists are twin sisters Hayley and Taylor whose classmate Katelyn has been found dead in a bathtub - she was electrocuted by a household device and no one is quite sure whether it was suicide or if someone else had a hand to play in her death. Hayley and Taylor, however, are determined to get to the bottom of what happened to Katelyn. Using their ability to see through the eyes of the dead, they retrace the last weeks and days of her life in a quest to find out exactly what happened to her.

Apart from the twins, there are a number of other characters we meet along the way to finding out Katelyn's fate. The teenage girls we encounter are almost universally shallow and bitchy, the boys are bland at best. The adult characters fare marginally better and, perhaps because they are closer in age to the author, came across as more authentic than their younger counterparts. The twins' Dad was, other than the twins themselves, the character with the most personality. I imagine the author drew heavily on his own experience to create him as both have written true crime books and both seem to fail at understanding teenage girls. I will admit it has been some years since I was a teenager but I had to roll my eyes at some of the words Olsen attributed to the young people in his novel who he failed to give the nuance, intelligence and complexity they deserved.

The insertion of a hack journalist digging into the secrets of Port Gamble was an interesting development adding an obstacle to the twins' investigation but it didn't really lead anywhere and when the situation was eventually resolved, the resolution was excessively violent and not particularly plausible. Still, in a world where twins are able to enter the mind of a dead girl and unscramble cryptic messages delivered to them via Ouija board, I should perhaps have expected to have to suspend my disbelief completely.

Beneath Her Skin is the first in a series of novels that will follow Hayley and Taylor on their paranormal crime solving adventures but unfortunately I won't be continuing on. This first instalment moved along quickly enough with some interesting twists but I struggled with the clunky, dated dialogue particularly amongst the teenage characters and found the writing too simple and repetitive to be enjoyable. I am sure fans of pacy, YA crime thrillers with a paranormal edge will be delighted by this book but alas it just wasn't for me.

I think this is the first book I’ve read from Gregg Olsen and I found it to be an interesting read albeit somewhat confusing in parts.
It may just have been my age but I found there were too many characters and their past and present histories started to intertwine in my brain. I did find it interesting and realise that it was aimed at a much younger generation.
I’ll definitely read more of his work.