Such an interesting concept. Totally something I'd recommend to my students.

This was a very different type of Victoria Laurie book. It's a bit dark at times. It's about reincarnation and a murder mystery and young love. The two main characters are Amber and Lily. The book starts with Amber's death and alternates between Amber's life and Lily's life and how the two are interconnected. Lily keeps having nightmares about a young boy lying dead in a field, then she meets Cole who looks just like the boy in her dream. Cole and Lily are the reincarnation of Spence and Amber. It is through the glimpse into Spence's and Amber's past and Cole's and Lily's investigation that we learn what actually happened years ago and how sometimes love really is eternal. This book kept me guessing until the end. The love story will appeal to teens and the mystery will appeal to adults. I would recommend this book to people who like paranormal fiction.

The magic number for this one was page 100. I just couldn't force myself to read past that number. For me this teen novel was for those who are transitioning from middle grade titles into teen. It felt like the characters had very young voices and it just didn't work out. This one also had an Insta-love that really just didn't work. I generally don't have to many issues with it but for this one it was just badly done. The romance felt fake and the characters just really didn't work. The story was interesting but not enough to keep me reading past 100 pages. For me this one is a DNF.

Told through alternating chapters, the story of Lily in present time and the story of Amber in the 1980s occurs, leaving Lily (and the reader) wondering what the connection is between the girls.

​I have read lots of other books by this author, both adult paranormal mysteries and teen paranormal mysteries and I have enjoyed her books. I was excited when I saw she had another story out and jumped at the chance to read it even when I was not sure what it was about. I glanced on Gooodreads before I started reading the book, which I probably should not have done, and I was surprised to see the book had kind of blah reviews. So I started reading the story expecting it to be awful, but I surprisingly found myself enjoying it. No, this was not my favorite book by this author, but it was not a bad story. The author does a great job of creating real, likeable characters and she used that skill here. The mystery plot at the end of the story was a not the best twist or even very surprising, but I was invested in seeing how everything played out for Lily and even Amber.

This review will be vague because I don’t want to give anything away. I have so many more specific things to say, but then I realized that it might ruin everything for those who don’t like spoilers (you crazy people, you). This was a paranormal mystery, where the reader wants to know what is going on with Lily while at the same time trying to piece together the past and what happened to Amber. I liked that the book alternated from each girl’s view point, two completely distinct voices. I also found it interesting that Lily’s story was told in a consistent linear fashion, where as Amber’s is told with the ending first and then small clues dropped along the way. As a side note, the paranormal aspect of the book was a very cool concept that I am very interested in and honestly I don’t see it used very often (or at least well) in books. I like that the author can put a different spin on things (probably using her own psychic life experiences).

Overall I thought this was an interesting read with solid writing making the story flow. I look forward to more from this author and her unique perspective.

I received this title from the publisher in return for my honest review.
For more reviews visit my blog at http://smadasbooksmack.blogspot.com/

Lily isn’t thrilled to be moving into her wealthy overbearing grandmother’s guest house, but after her father left them both high and dry, she is willing to do anything to make her mother happy. At her new school, Lily is drawn to Cole, a fellow student. When Lily begins to have crazy dreams that turn into episodes, she learns that she is the reincarnated soul of Amber, a teen who commited suicide in the 1980s, and that Cole is the reincarnated soul of Spence, Amber’s boyfriend, who everyone in town believes was killed by Amber.

Armed with this knowledge and the belief that both Amber and Cole were murdered by another suspect, Lily and Cole work together to uncover the mystery, while dealing with their own feelings for each other.

Fun creepy mystery that jumps between both timelines.