Shift - Jeri Smith-Ready

Shift – Jeri Smith-Ready

Pages: 367
Publisher: Simon Pulse (Simon and Schuster)
Release Date: 1st June 2011

Other Titles in this Series: Shade

When two boys – one living and one a ghost – each hold a piece of your heart, how do you choose?

Aura’s life is anything but easy. And ever since her boyfriend, Logan, died and came back as a ghost, it’s got even more complicated. Aura loves Logan, and as she watches him struggle between ghost and shade, she knows she needs her now more than ever. But she can't deny the connection with her very alive and very cute friend, Zachary. And Aura’s not sure that she wants to.

Logan and Zachary each fight to be the one by her side, but time is running out and Aura realises that she needs them both to help her uncover the mystery of the Shift – and her past. As their search uncovers new truths, Aura must decide who to trust with her secrets...and her heart.

Shade was one of my favourite reads last summer so I’ve been waiting to see if shift could live up to it for ages. And, man, did it!

A lot of Shade was the building up of the mythology of the Shift and hinting at the relevance of Newgrange in the appearance of ghosts and hinting at Aura’s crucial involvement in all of it. And we finally get some answers in Shift! I loved how Jeri Smith-Ready didn’t give us all of the information in one solid hit, although because of how our answers were given – very cleverly, I might add – we did get a fair amount at once. There was a steady drip of clues and small unveilings throughout the novel. And when we got there, I wasn’t completely shocked, but I didn't know what was coming either. I just loved it! The parallels to Aura’s situation was also brilliant.

But the thing that those that read Shade really wanted to find out from Shift was whether she chose Zachary or Logan! Now, I’m a full-on Zachary fangirl. Every time Aura fussed over Logan or made a stupid decision I wanted to shake her and yell at her because, hello: Zach! Though it made Shift feel so emotionally real. Aura was still grieving and Logan was her first love; there was no way she’d be able to just disregard all of her feelings for him. I applaud Jeri Smith-Ready for that. I imagine it’s difficult to keep a story moving at the pace that Shift does without losing the emotional realism.

Speaking of realism, Zach’s accent and use of British slang was perfect. And not to mention hot! I could literally hear his lilting voice when he spoke and it rounded out my image of him so clearly. There was also Aura’s iffy judgement throughout the novel. There were certain decisions she made, that could possibly be blamed on grief and the pressure of her situation, which just had me shaking my head with disbelief. Without giving anything away, there is one particular one involving prom that I couldn’t quite get my head around. But at the same time, I feel it was kind of necessary for her character.

While checking the page number for my review, I noticed an advertisement for Shine, the final book in the trilogy and I have to admit that I was surprised. Shift felt like an ending to me. We found out how Aura, the Shift and Aura’s mothers time at Newgrange were connected, she chose her guy and the Keeley’s were finally able to begin to move on so I’m a little bit hesitant as to how Jeri Smith-Ready is going to continue Aura’s story from the same arc. They are, of course, a few things that were obviously left open for another book, but I was surprised nonetheless. I am sure, however, that I’m fussing about nothing; Shine is going to be just as amazing as Shade and Shift.

In case this review hasn’t made it clear, I LOVED Shift and I can't wait for Shine. But before that I might just have to hunt down Jeri Smith-Ready’s adult series’...

Thanks to S&S for sending me a review copy.

Sophie