Review & Giveaway: Here

When I was contacted by Samantha, at CLP Blog Tours, about being part of Denise Grover Swank's new blog tour, I was overjoyed. After falling in love with her writing style while reading Chosen, I found that I could not wait to read Here.

Here by Denise Grover Swank

Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 350
Published: November 11, 2011
Publisher: CreateSpace
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult

My Rating: 5/5

Summary (from amazon.com):

Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before.

Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months.

When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.

Review:

**NOTE: A copy of this book was provided by the author. However, no compensations were made and this review reflects my honest thoughts and feelings.**

If I had to sum up this book in one word, it would be... FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC! Once again, Denise has had me on the edge of my seat for the entire story.

When I first heard that Here was a young-adult novel, I was a little worried because that genre is not necessarily one that I read often and one that I find leaves things to be desired. However, since Twilight, I will be honest, I have become a lot more open to testing the YA waters. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the storyline.

As with Chosen, Denise's writing style makes it near impossible to put the novel down. I found myself going bleary eyed at night so I could finish in one sitting as I wouldn't have been able to stop reading. The suspence factor is off the charts. Even though I thought I knew where the story was going, I soon realized just how off course I was and where I found myself, was SO much better.

If you asked me what my favourite part of this book was, I would have to say that there is a second one coming! After falling in love with the characters and the storyline, I knew that I would need more to fuel this fire and thankfully, Denise has the second novel slated to come out in Fall of 2012.

Overall, this is a must-read for all YA fans and as someone who is still testing the waters over here, I think everyone needs to have this one their bookshelves.

In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I have decided that I would give away one (1) copy to a lucky follower! Giveaway open until Friday, January 5th, 2012!!

Giveaway winner - Karen B from Canada! Congrats Karen. An e-mail has been sent and you should receive your book shortly! :)