I really enjoyed this book and think it would help children going through their parents divorce. I do wish the teenager was not more grown up than her parents and that they gave her more reason to be . I wonder if there will be a part 2? I will be reading it if there is. ( )

this was an OK book. It was an interesting read, but not my style. The story was creative and interesting, but choppy at points. I felt there could've been more character and story development. The only information we recieved was what was vital to the plot, and more depth would have been nice. Overall, good writing except for a few confusing parts. ( )

I got this book through ER. The cover looks to have been hand drawn/painted. I was able to skim it before I had to leave on vacation the next day and it promises to be an interesting read.

The characters and story are interesting. It is important to keep in mind that this is a YA book. Jessie is a high school student dealing with issues any might face. And those issues are important to the overall book. Jessie's dad is having an affair, her mom has turned to alcohol for comfort... Other issues include divorce and bullying. It's the paranormal aspect on top of this that really adds that extra spark. Wesley Peterson and his brother are different—hard to believe though it is. And something evil has followed them into Jessie's world.

Pros:
~ Interesting characters and story.
~ Appropriate for audience. Gives a high school perspective and includes issues teens might encounter (affairs, alcohol abuse, divorce, bullying, sportsmanship).

Cons:
~ I did feel the writing was a little clumsy at points. Not the grammar, that was fine. My issue was more with the flow as I read it.

The Shadow Within by Jenine Wilson

This is a work of young adult fiction. I received a copy of this book directly from the author through the Library Thing Member Giveaway Program. The story revolves around a group of high school students, who at first appear to be your run of the mill hormone driven teenagers, adequately integrated with bullies, jocks, and nerds. But two students in particular, Wesley and his brother Brian are a bit different than the rest of the student body, as they posses supernatural abilities.

I must say this book wasn’t my cup of tea. As I read it I couldn’t help but envisioning the story as a B rated teen movie. For one thing I never found myself empathizing with any of the characters, they didn’t feel real or fleshed out. Additionally some of the side story seemed out of place and forced. For example one sideline of the main story was that the main character's (Jessie) father leaves her mother for another woman. In the beginning we are shown how the father is never around because he is having an affair under the auspices of working late to become a partner of his law firm. In the scene where he finally leaves his wife he makes the attempt to bring his daughter with him. This all feels stilted since he never showed interest in her from the beginning.

The story never took off for me; it never begged me to keep reading. It was slow at non-essential detail points of the plot and was too fast at times when more elaboration was necessary.

Now that I have dwelled on the negative I will leave you with a positive point. Although work was needed in terms of character development and story line, the writing itself was not all that bad. This is a self published piece, and my prior experience with such projects has been less than favorable. The writing had been proofed and didn’t leave clumsy grammatical speed bumps in the way of an already average story. Ms. Wilson certainly has her own voice and I believe with some work could hone her abilities enabling her to write a much stronger novel. ( )