A dead girl and a living boy, can they be together… or not?

So I finally had a chance to read this one, I believe I have had it on my shelves for a couple of years, and maybe I tried it as the first part of the book seemed familiar. Yesterday (October 3rd) I decided to start it, and then I couldn’t sleep so I decided to finish it. 4 hours after I started I was done and it was a ride. I am just sad that I am not going to know how it will end. I mean, the book was good given that I flew through it, but I had plenty of issues as well and I cannot rate it higher than a 3.5 star. Which means.. the book is good, but also that this book is going on the bye bye stack and that I am not that interested in buying the next books for the full price. My libraries don’t have any Tara Hudson books, so unless I find it elsewhere in physical form, I guess for now I will just have to think they reached their happy ending.

I am going to do a good/not so good review, as I am just completely tired because even after I finished I just couldn’t sleep well.

Good:
-I loved Amelia and I loved walking along with her as she discovered who she was, who her family was, and what happened to her on that fatal night. She is quite a strong character and I loved how she stood her ground with Eli and all the horror that surrounds him.
-While I am not a fan of the instant love, I did grow to love Amelia and Joshua together. While I still wish that things were better written in regards to their love, they still made a cute couple and I loved seeing them explore things. Find out how things worked for each other.
-Joshua. He was just such a good guy. I loved how much he tried to do for Amelia, listening to her, holding her hand, being there for her.
-The way the story was written, while I had issues, this book also read fast and I couldn’t stop. I had to know more and more about what was going on.
-I like the idea of Seekers, though I don’t agree with what they are doing.
-The cover is just gorgeous, though given the description of the dress I wonder why they choose what you can see on the cover. Oh well, still a pretty dress.
-The ending was even faster paced and there were lots of creepy things happening. That dang bridge should just stay destroyed. I do hope no one rebuilds it.
-I had such a laugh when Amelia went to school with Joshua and helped him out with math/calculus. Oh man, I would have loved a ghost to help me out with that as well. Maths are just not my strongest suit and I am glad I am done with high school.
-The revelations were well done and well paced. Not all in one go as some books do, but as the story went on we found out more and more about what is going on at the bridge, how long it has been going on, but also all the details about Amelia, about Eli.
-I loved seeing Joshua react during that first date they had together in the park. Poor guy finds a cute girl… and finds out she is quite dead. Oh boy. 😛

Not so good:
-Given that our villain is Eli… I have to say that he wasn’t even the worst character in the book. That honour goes to the bitch named Ruth. Also known as Joshua’s grandmother. Holy, hell that woman is terrible. She believes that any ghost that wanders the earth is unclaimed and thus evil. Yep. And that means she needs to exorcise them despite clearly seeing that Amelia is a good and sweet girl and that her grandson loves her. That they have something sweet going on. There is not a drop of evil in Amelia, but no matter what she tries, or what Joshua tries, grandmother stays in bitch mode throughout the entire book and at times I just wanted to exorcise her. It reminds me of Harry Potter in which I always thought Umbridge was worse than Voldemort, who was the actual villain. I kind of hope that this old hag gets karma. And maybe learns some valuable lessons, if that is still possible in her limited brain.
-Eli. He was a good villain, well written as I just never could like him and he just made the book a tad harder to read. We keep finding out new revelations about him and what he knows about Amelia and my blood just boiled all the time. Then there is what he did at the graveyard near the end and that just settled it for me, he went in the not so good bracket of my review.
-Jillian. The sister. I am guessing that thanks to horrible grandmother Jillian is brainwashed about what ghosts/dead people are. Even despite the ending, what Amelia did, she acts like this. Bah. Girl, you should be freaking grateful. I do worry that maybe later she will be part of the Seekers and do all those exorcisms that shouldn’t happen.
-The instalove. GOOD LORD the instalove. People who know me, know that if there is one thing I hate in a book it is Instalove (oh and love triangles). And that was pretty fucking instalove. She is in the river, she sees him land in the water, is instantly attracted to him, instantly stays with him. And falls in love not long after that. WOW. JUST WOW.
-The whole thing that happened after Joshua flew over the bridge. Amelia has been wandering the earth for quite some years, but then magically there is Joshua, and now she can feel. Now she has smell. Now she can do all those things that she normally never could. OMG, what a miracle. rolls her eyes And all the time she discovered new things it was, of course, not due to herself but due to Joshua. Good grief girl.
-She isn’t just your average dead girl, she is super dead girl. I won’t spoil it further, but good lord that just was cringe.

So as you can see a mixed bag. The good things overpowered the not so good things so that is why I am rating it a 3.5 star. Plus, the story was written in a great pace and I just couldn’t stop reading. That also counts in my book as a big plus point. I am happy I had the chance to read it.