"Spectral" New YA Paranormal by Shannon Duffy

 Convinced she’s a part of the witness protection program, sixteen-year-old Jewel Rose is shuffled around the globe with her family like a pack of traveling gypsies. After arriving at lucky home twenty-seven, she stumbles upon a mysterious boy with magical powers claiming to be her guardian . . . and warning of imminent danger. Despite the obvious sparks between them, Jewel discovers a relationship is forbidden, and the more she learns about dark, brooding Roman, she begins to question who she can even believe — the family who raised her, or the supposed sworn protector who claims they’ve been lying to her all along.

As she struggles to uncover who her family has really been running from, she is forced to hide her birthmark that reveals who she is. With new realities surfacing, unexplained powers appearing, and two tempting boys vying for her heart, Jewel battles to learn who she can trust in an ever growing sea of lies, hoping she’ll make it through her seventeenth birthday alive.

Particulars of the Book :

Author:  Shannon Duffy

e-book

ISBN: 9780983741879

ISBN: 9781476293585Pages: 334
Release: April 10, 2012

Author Bio:

Shannon Duffy writes young adult and middle grade fiction. She grew up on the beautiful east coast of Canada and now lives in Ontario, Canada. She is the mom of one boy, Gabriel, her angel. She loves writing, reading, working out, soccer, and the sport of champions-shopping. She is the author of the young adult paranormal romance, SPECTRAL. Her upcoming middle grade fantasy novel, GABRIEL STONE AND THE DIVINITY OF VALTA is scheduled for a January 2013 release.

Spectral web site:
http://spectralwitch.blogspot.com/
Shannon Duffy's Blog:
http://1fantasyfairy.blogspot.com/

Spectral GoodReads page:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13319632-spectral

Tribute Books website:
http://www.tribute-books.com

The Dame's Review :

YA readers will certainly be kept guessing while reading Shannon Duffy's debut book, "Spectral" this summer!  The plot is a perplexing one, and the characters serve to keep one guessing almost to the end about the crux of their life-style and the problem that keeps them running. Jewel's birthmark and special qualities are featured and decidedly interesting.  Duffy's beautiful book cover will grab lots of ebook followers, is my guess, which is first and foremost in the the YA fiction crowd these days.

While her writing is good, I think Ms Duffy could have made the twists and turns of the novel a bit clearer to her readers.  It's good to have suspense and mysterious characters; particularly handsome leading men!  But, readers need time and information to fall deeply under the spell of a book and character.  As in art--we sometimes need to create some clear space to see the full picture.  Some more self-editing and experience will help in her next YA book, I suspect.

There is much to recommend "Spectral." The family and Jewel are, for the most part, interesting characters, their moving and "hiding" creates good mystery, as does her attempt to discover the whys and wherefores of her being.  I loved the idea of Shannon's book. 

I'm looking forward to more from this talented author.  I think she has good ideas, and I think with her next book we'll see her develop as a solid YA author.  This was a 3.5 star book for me.  Not quite a cross over fiction... but fun, I thought, and age appropriate for teenagers.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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