Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready

Title: Shift

Author: Jeri Smith Ready

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary:

Aura’s life is anything but easy. Her boyfriend, Logan, died, and his slides between ghost and shade have left her reeling. Aura knows he needs her now more than ever. She loves Logan, but she can’t deny her connection with the totally supportive, totally gorgeous Zachary. And she’s not sure that she wants to.

Logan and Zachary will fight to be the one by her side, but Aura needs them both to uncover the mystery of her past—the mystery of the Shift.

As Aura’s search uncovers new truths, she must decide whom to trust with her secrets…and her heart.

My Thoughts: Shade was my favorite paranormal of 2010 and I basically idolize Jeri Smith Ready (seriously, if you love paranormal and music, read her adult books!), so I had huge expectations for Shift. So huge, in fact, that once I actually had a copy of the book, I was afraid to read it for fear of being disappointed.

But, of course, Jeri is a genius and I had no reason to worry because well, Shift ROCKS. Hard. I read it when I was sick and wanted to do nothing but sleep and yet it still managed to make me never, ever want to put it down.

Okay, fangirling aside now. (Maybe)

Shift picks up a little bit after Shade leaves off, with Aura still caught between her feelings for Logan and Zachary and Logan basically stuck between shade and ghost. Logan wants to be with Aura, even though he can't touch her, Aura's trying to move on, and Zachary is gorgeous, er, I mean, wants Aura for himself. However, unlike in Shade, there's a few unseen twists that makes this love triangle into more of a love...pentagon, which sounds kind of ridiculous but actually brings out a lot of emotion and lets the reader see other sides of the story.

Aside from the romantic twists, Shift is full of all different kinds of plot twists. Sometimes the reader is expecting them or at least something similar, sometimes the reader isn't. Either way, it pretty much guarantees the book isn't going to be put down. I don't want to say anything else about that because I don't want to spoil it.

One of my favorite things about Shift is that even though it's the second book in a series, it doesn't feel like the second book in a series. What I mean by that is a lot of the time, Book 2 just feels like an extension of Book 1 and is just carrying the characters along to Book 3 with no real plot, no real ending. But Shift is fully developed and the ending is wrapped up nicely while still leaving the reader with enough questions to make them want the next book RIGHT NOW.

I also love how we get to see the different sides of various characters in the story, especially Logan's brothers. And Zachary's accent. And I love reading about the music and the stars and everything else that filters into making Shift stand out from all of the other paranormal books out there. And I love Zachary.

And...I could go on all day. The point is, I LOVE THIS BOOK.

If there's one book you pre-order all year, it should be SHIFT. It's truly refreshing and is definitely going to surpass everyone's expectations. If you haven't read Shade, then you're truly missing out and need to order it ASAP!