Seeker
Ally has always had a certain element of clairvoyance in her life - whether through her mother's ability to find anything or her grandmother's ability to touch her stuff to find out what she'd been doing - but when her own gift begins to manifest around her 17th birthday, things get crazy. She begins having visions of one of the popular girls at school - an ex-friend who has managed to fall into the stereotypical mean girl role - who's mixed up in something bad. As she tries to deal with these visions, she gets to know Jack - a guy with a past working hard to turn his life around. Getting mixed up with Ally could mean trouble as he tries to get through his probation with a clean record, but the two seem to be made for each other. It's a race to put everything right, but can Ally do it in time?I found the writing to be great, the characters believable, the situation interesting and the entire book engaging. The only put off for me was the language. I'm not a particular fan of cussing, though I can tolerate some, but these kids were cussing all the time.
The romance kind of went super deep super quick, which I understand, but some of the talk got a bit too serious for me at the end. I mean, she's 16 going on 17. And the adults are only too happy to see the two of them together, which I think is unusual considering the age difference (not much in the scheme of things, but at that age, it can mean a world of difference, and especially with his background). The struggle focused on them wondering if the other really liked them, when there were other struggles that would have been more realistic.
Ally cried an awful lot, and Jack seemed okay with that. Not my typical experience, though I suppose it could happen. And Ally kept saying how she's not usually such an emotional gal. Again, kind of understandable, though never really explained.
The author also breaks the wall between reader and narrator several times, which I think is to add suspense, but it didn't really work for me. It turned into a "well, the next part is going to be pretty bad" kind of commentary, which took me out of the story and fell flat (in my opinion).
Otherwise, an enjoyable book, very steamy romance (it never crosses into sex), and an emotional roller coaster, which I always enjoy. Probably not going to check out the rest of the series (I'm reading books aloud to my toddler son, and this just didn't seem very appropriate, even if he doesn't understand a word of it), even though it ends on a cliffhanger that I would love to learn more about. Oh well. There are plenty of books out there.
**Trigger warning - there's a bit of violence in this book, and particularly, rape. The author doesn't go into great detail, but if this is subject matter you can't handle, you might want to find another book.**
