Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Ever Near by Melissa MacVicar

Title: Ever Near
Author: Melissa MacVicar
Pages: 200
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing, LLC
Goodreads rating: 4.21 stars
Published: September 2013
Source: Paperback/From the Author

Description:

Love is ever near. But trouble is never far.

Nantucket Island is haunted, but only sixteen-year-old Jade Irving knows it. Ignoring the disturbing spirits isn’t an option, because one dwells in the enormous historic home she shares with her newly blended family. Jade is finding it more and more difficult to explain away Lacey’s ghostly, anguished tantrums, especially with Charlie, her gorgeous, almost step-brother, living right across the hall.

When a power-hungry ghost hunter tracks down Jade and blackmails her, Jade’s secret teeters on the edge of exposure, and her entire future hangs in the balance. If anyone finds out Jade can talk to ghosts, her life will be forever changed.

Can she save herself, free Lacey, and hang on to her tenuous connection with Charlie? Or will everything she ever wanted slip through her fingers?



Ever Near actually had me laughing within the first couple pages.  Don't let that fool you, though, as it also scared the goodness out of me shortly after.  This is definitely a nice little fright-fest of a story, with a beautiful modernly historic Nantucket setting.  Pretty much any book that takes place in a historic East Coast town will have me wanting to read it, and this one really didn't let me down.  I will say, don't attempt to read it at night if you have a rough time with ghosts.

The story follows Jade, a 16-year-old girl who can see and talk to ghosts.  She's been able to for several years, but no one else knows.  No. One.  Her mother is about to get married, and they've moved in with her fiance's family, in their gorgeous old Nantucket house, Fair-Ever.  Which happens to be haunted by one upset ghost, whom Jade calls Lacey.  Having never actually stayed somewhere that was haunted, Jade soon finds out that the ghost can not only talk to her and be seen by her, but the ghost can also disrupt Jade physically as well.  And to top it all off, Lacey is now haunting Jade in her dreams.

The story follows Jade in her quest to banish the ghost and try to live a "normal" life.  While the book was really entertaining, the characters definitely acted like teenagers.  Some YA books the young people seem much older than a normal teenager {which is probably part of the reason some of them appeal so much to us older peeps}, but the characters in this were much more like an average young person {you know, minus the whole seeing and talking to ghosts}.  This was a little frustrating to me, as both Jade and her boyfriend came off kind of wishy-washy to me.  And there were a few times when I remember reading and just saying "Good Lord!" with how they were acting.  That being said, it was also kind of refreshing to read about teenagers talking and acting like, well, teenagers!

I really enjoyed reading Ever Near.  It was a fun, spooky read that was just perfect for the dreary days we've been having! 

2 comments:

Melissa MacVicar said...

Thanks for having EVER NEAR on your blog!

Anonymous said...

I'll also have to keep my eyes on your blog, too! ;-)