Shattered Blue by Lauren Bird Horowitz (ARC Review – YA)

Horowitz, Lauren Bird. Shattered Blue. 2015. Print. ISBN-13: 978-1503949973. Formats available: Paperback, ebook, audiobook. Paperback $9.99. Kindle $3.99. 

Info 684 Genre: Genre Pick #5 – Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Will be released: September 15, 2015.

Synopsis: (no spoilers)

Noa’s sister died, and it shattered her world. Her family is falling apart, and all she has left is her littlest sister, who is her whole world. Callum transfers to Noa’s school and she immediately senses there is something different about him. They begin to get closer but Noa is confused at Callum’s refusal to touch her in any way. She soon learns why. Callum is a Fae who has been exiled from his world, and tossed into hers. But Noa’s world doesn’t produce the “light” or energy the Fae need to survive. The only way for Callum to get this “light” is by stealing it from human beings. But stealing a human’s light is the same as stealing their future happiness. And it’s possible to take too much. Callum knows if he touches Noa, he might not be able to stop before he takes too much. As Noa and Callum struggle to find a way to be together, people from Callum’s past are showing up. Enemies hunt him, and a loved one who can’t be trusted shows up at the same time. Secrets, enemies, and love collide in the first installment in the planned Light Trilogy.

My Thoughts: (no spoilers)

The good: I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It caught my interest from the beginning, but the second half REALLY grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. The premise is good, the mythology surrounding the Fae and their world is new, unlike any other of the Fae books I’ve encountered. The author’s writing is quite beautiful, she is skilled at weaving the character’s emotion into the text. She was able to make my heart hurt for Noa’s loss, and she uses poetry quite well throughout the story to underscore the character’s thoughts and feelings. There is a lot of promise for some excellent world building to come. The first book takes place in our world, and Noa is a plain old human, so we don’t get introduced to the mythos of the Fae until well into the first book, however the cliff-hanger ending indicates that we will get a more up-close-and-personal look into the magical aspects of the world in the next installment. I quite liked the “energy” concept, rather than the traditional “magic” version we often get, and I like how the Fae are divvied up into different types. There also seems to be a lot of potential for Fae political intrigue in the coming books, and I am always a fan of some political intrigue!

The plot grips you from the beginning and the story is well paced. The best part of this book, for me, was how the idea of secrets and secrecy kept coming up, but very subtly, and that the last couple of chapters were full of shocking plot twists. I usually am not surprised by the direction a book takes, or if I am, the direction is one I don’t care for. But this book has some genuinely surprising twists, many of which made me enjoy the story more than if the twist had not happened. Also the story really starts to heat up in the second half, when the third main character is finally introduced. That character is by far the most interesting one of the three. Before that character came on the scene I was feeling so-so about the story, but afterwards the characters got more interesting, the plot heated up, and the surprises started being unveiled. By the time I finished the book I was happily committed to series. I will absolutely be picking up the second installment, whenever it is released.

The bad(ish) – There was not a lot bad with this story, it was a pretty successful introduction to the new series. There were a couple of things I did not care for, though. Noa and Callum do have the “insta-love” that many YA books feature recently. There was very little relationship development before they felt “in love” with each other. I did not feel that this was explored enough, and I couldn’t really understand why they loved each other. They did share the loss of a sibling, which they bonded over, so perhaps that had something to do with it. The book is told from alternating viewpoints of the three main characters, and I wished there was more from the third character. That character was by far the most interesting, but doesn’t appear until well into the story. Hopefully we will see more from that character in books to come, though! Additionally, the first half or so of the story does not include a lot of action, and meanders insubstantially, a bit. However, let me just say that the second half is completely different. The characters become far more interesting, the plot picks up in intensity, and secrets and twists start to emerge, making the second half of the book a far more enjoyable experience. Also, when I finished the book, and the final secrets were revealed (AND WOW! SHOCKING!), I did understand why some things had to happen the way they did. I don’t usually like when there is a shocking reveal at the end (usually its some plot twist I do not care for) but in this case, the twists spiced this story and the characters up and made me eager to read the next installment.

Fans of twilight may enjoy this, as well as fans of fantasy/fae/magic stories with a complicated romance and a potential love triangle. If you’ve ever seen the Marvel movie Thor, you’ll also notice an unusual similarity here, in the relationship between a “good” brother and “bad” brother, as well as the concept of different dimensions connected by portals.

This book was given to me as an ARC in return for an honest review, from Netgalley.com

Goodreads @ https://www.goodreads.com/kelseybogan

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Themes include:
death, grief, secrets, love, family, truth & lies, sacrifice.

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Liked it? Loved it? Gotta have more of it?
This is a planned trilogy, but no information is yet available on the next book. Ill update this as info comes available!

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Extras:
This series is so new, I don’t have much extras for you guys yet. But here are two other Bloggers who have reviewed it so far!

• Teen Ya Book Nerd
• Diminishing Thoughts

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About the Author: 
Again, not much info on the author yet, but she is available on twitter @birdaileen

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Citation & Credits
Book cover image: Courtesy of Amazon.com