Wow! This book has left me a little speechless. This is such a creative, engaging, and intriguing book. The characters are complex, with real issues and concerns adding to their believability and likeabilty. I hesitate to say much about the book for fear of giving anything away. I will say, the author kept me guessing with where she took the story, I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation. I look forward to reading more work by this author.

Evernight Teen and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Collide. This is my honest opinion of the book.

One reckless night was all that it took for Kayla to become pregnant. A high school student and dancer with a bright future ahead, Kayla does not want the pregnancy to derail either her life or that of her boyfriend Luke. When strange things start to happen, including memory flashes with Alec that Kayla does not recall, the dream world suddenly becomes very real to her. When Kayla discovers that her life has more meaning than she has ever considered, will the shadowy world of the Afterlife contain her ultimate destruction?

I am surprised as to the number of 4 and 5 star reviews for this book, as Collide has some issues that put it squarely in the average category for me. I have never met a parent as enlightened as Kayla's mom, as she just shrugs off the fact that her daughter is pregnant. She seems more concerned about Luke's wellbeing than Kayla's. Collide starts out as a realistic fiction and morphs into a supernatural one with a segue that puzzled me. The fact that Kayla was a ballet dancer really has no relevance to the larger story and did not need to be included. The plot twist came out of left field and really threw the book off balance. Some of the concepts regarding the Afterlife were original and interesting, but it was not enough, in my opinion. The surprise ending, with its cliffhanger, begs for a sequel, but this is just not the series for me.

I'm sorry to say that unfortunately I did not enjoy this book. The first few chapters in, I realized that this book deals with a teen who is pregnant by her boyfriend, but is smitten with another guy with "piercing eyes" who takes her to a place between heaven and earth. That is about as far as I got before I was ready to put this one down. This book as just not for me.