3 out of 4 stars
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B. Truly’s novel, Melanie’s Evanescent Journey, is a paranormal romance that serves as a companion story to the Sonar series and ties in to both the first and second book. However, this story stands well on its own merit and may be enjoyed without the benefit of first reading other books from the series.
Melanie is a 17 year old from Australia who moves to Denver, Colorado when her parents take a new job. Over the summer she quickly becomes close friends with her next door neighbor, Ebony. Once school begins Melanie is immediately and inexorably drawn to Jason, a mysterious boy in her class. As she is drawn into an intense whirlwind romance, Melanie slowly realizes that Jason has been hiding secrets; secrets with far reaching consequences. She must also feel her way through family dynamics with Jason’s younger sister and brother as well as other undercurrents. As forces push them farther apart, Jason’s secrets bring dangers and revelations that she never could have imagined.
The style of writing and storyline read like a young adult novel with a straight forward narration. However, I would not recommend it for young readers since a sexual relationship does develop quickly for this underage couple. It is difficult to believe that neither Melanie nor Jason ever considered taking any precautions for safe sex or any possible consequences to their physical relationship. The characters also engage in underage drinking at a party. These occurrences are only found in the first part of the book, which is broken into two parts.
The author is successful at keeping the attention of the reader by regular plot developments that keeps you guessing at what will happen next. Enjoyably, this book does not end like a typical romance novel and has some unexpected twists. It is heartening to see Melanie mature through the book into a level headed, but guarded, young woman, even though her character starts out a fairly stereotypical teen.
A couple of issues with this novel are: conversations between characters in this book often feel flat; and, although Melanie is introduced as Australian, no Australian colloquialisms or phrasing are used anywhere. She is also unusually familiar with American pop culture.
I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend this book for readers who enjoy an easy read in the young adult and paranormal romance genres and are over the age of 17.
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Melanie's Evanescent Journey
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