Genre: YA paranormal/mystery
ISBN: 978-1-937976-50-7
Review copy: provided by author
Petra Maras lives a charmed life, but only in the magical sense. Her absentee father is a criminal, her mother is emotionally dead, and everyone at her new school knows she comes from a family of witches. All she wants is to be normal, but that’s impossible, given her family. And given that she’s psychic. When the police request help with a murder investigation, Petra reluctantly agrees. Which isn’t such a good idea since the prime suspect wants to date her, and she really wants to say yes. Her gut says he’s innocent, but since she can’t get a read on him, she can’t know for sure. And when she discovers he’s been keeping secrets, she wonders if maybe she’s been following her heart instead of her head..
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Blood, She Read is the debut book by Sara Hubbard and I must say I really enjoyed it. Sara Hubbard has written an great book with wonderful characters that develop through to the end of the story. Of course at Paranormal Cravings we always have a really soft-spot for the Paranormal beings, and it is lovely to read it in a YA. Blood, She Read shows you that it has not always have to involve action and hot love scenes to enjoy a good paranormal book.
Blood, She Read is about Petra Maras and the murder of a local teen, Josie. And how Petra is going to help the local police in solving this mystery with her crazy mother and the other school students on the background. Although the paranormal mystery was the main line of the story there was also a little romance going on between Petra and Finn, and a love hate relationship between Petra and het mother. That in my opinion was a little on the heavy side. I think I enjoyed the story more if the relationship between Petra and het mother would have evolved a little more from the start. Of douse this is a YA, so wishing for more romance is not really possible. But maybe leaving out the romance has in this case also it’s attractions and keep the reader wishing for more.Sara Hubbard said that this is a stand-alone but that she is working on a sequel, so maybe we can read later more about Petra and Finn than that we could in Blood, She Read.
I really loved reading about Petra and het life on school. She is brave with all the actions like any teen. I had a little trouble around page 40 to continue this book. Somewhere I had the feeling the story stopped and there was not really anything new happening, that and the negative story line between Petra and het mother that came back to often to really enjoy this part of the book. The mother/daughter relation feels unnatural and written with a strange angle almost forced. I do like it that there was some tension between them but somehow it feels more natural if the relationship between the two would have written sooner to the positive.That said!
Overall I found Blood, She Read to be good story with funny and some romantic moments. I would recommend this book for young adults or adults who like fun paranormal mystery books with a small taste of romance. I liked Blood, She Read and will look forward to the next book!
ABOUT
Sara Hubbard is the author of young adult books. Her debut novel BLOOD, SHE READ releases fall 2012 and is a NEORWA Cleveland Rocks winner and a RCRW Duel on the Delta finalist.
Sara was born in Australia to British parents, but has lived in Nova Scotia for the majority of her life. In addition to being an author, Sara is a wife, a mother, and a registered nurse with the military.
Author’s website – Publisher’s website
