Some adult authors' attempts to write a YA novel end disastrously, with dumbed-down characters, childish writing, and overdramatization. Thankfully, Jeri Smith-Ready is not one of them. With SHADE, Jeri proves that her smart writing transcends age boundaries, and that she is capable of creating incredibly detailed worlds of tension, action, mystery, and romance.

Aura is a wonderfully strong and passionate heroine. She is not afraid to talk back and speak her mind, much to the delight of readers who love themselves a great big dose of flirtacious verbal jousting. It is this passion, her temper and self-confidence and desires, that make her torn romantic feelings so believable. Love triangles are difficult to write well, but Jeri Smith-Ready makes it look easy.

But even the best of love triangles alone won't make a book truly great, which is why the complexity of the world in SHADE is so astonishing and admirable. The Shift, the presence of the ghosts, the Shades, the disturbingly powerful government division in charge of regulating paranormal activity, the mystery involving real-life enigmas--all of these are written into the book in a way that doesn't make them glaringly obvious; instead, we easily and gladly accept the unique things about Aura's world as fact.

SHADE has a great balance between the larger, political plot involving the "ghost police" and possible ramifications of revelations of the Shift, and the more personal sentimental emotional plot of Logan's death and Aura's torn romantic feelings between the two guys. For an oversaturated YA paranormal market, I doubt you can find a smarter, snappier book, and for a smart read, it's exhilaratingly entertaining. If you're a fan of paranormal lit, love triangles, and/or stories with a dash of political conspiracy and larger-world stakes, you absolutely cannot miss this one. Your brain will thank you.

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Reviewed by Andrea for TeensReadToo.com

In SHADE by Jeri Smith-Ready, Aura was born post-Shift, which means that she can see ghosts and Shades (ghosts who have gotten really mad). She hates being able to do this and would give anything to stop it.

Until her boyfriend Logan's birthday comes around, and instead of it being a great day, it turns horrific when he dies. But since she can see ghosts, she can still see Logan. So it's almost like having her boyfriend still there - but not quite.

Aura meets a new friend, Zachary, who understands what she is going through and is a big piece to the Shift puzzle. But with both Logan and Zachary in her life, which one will she turn to in the end?

I thought this book was so unique. The premise that people born after the Shift can see ghosts is so creative! I was hooked on the story right from the beginning.

SHADE brought out a lot of emotions in me. There were times when I was saying "How can she do that when Logan has only been dead for a little while?" and then at the end, I was definitely teary eyed.

The book ended on a cliffhanger. I want more! I want to know what happens next! And there are still so many questions that I have. Who are Aura's parents? Why was she the first baby born after the Shift? And a bunch more that I don't want to say so I won't spoil the story.

The sequel, SHIFT, comes out in May 2011, and I can't wait to get my hands on it!

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I really liked this book, but not as well as her WVMP series. The concept of a shift occurring where everyone born after that moment can see the ghosts that walk among us is unique. There is a mystery as to how this occurred and I expect that will be explained in the trilogy. I would say this is not for the younger YA crowd as there are numerous instances of sex and drugs (although the drug part has devastating consequences). I wasn't really happy with the ending, but was left wanting to read the next.

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I got a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program. The sequel to this book, Shift, is due out May of 2011. I have been wanting to read something by Jeri Smith-Ready and am happy I got to. I was worried this would be just another teen love triangle with some supernatural stuff thrown in. It is that kind of but Smith-Ready has done some really interesting and creative things with this world...so in the end it was more than just another paranormal teen romance. I really enjoyed it.

Sixteen years ago the kids being born to the world were different, they started being able to see things that the adults couldn't...they could see ghosts. Now the society is torn into two groups those who are over sixteen and can't see ghosts, the pre-shifers, and those who can see ghosts. Aura was the first one to be born after the Shift, she is like all the other kids post-Shift and sees a ton of ghosts. Not a huge deal...until her boyfriend dies. Now Aura is stuck in a legal battle where her boyfriend is testifying as a ghost; how can you not be supportive to your boyfriend even if he is dead? While at school she has been put on a research project with the hunky Irish Zachary. Zachary has the knowledge to help Aura with her research to determine exactly how the Shift happened, but she is also strangely drawn to him. Can Aura stay faithful to her dead boyfriend? Should she? I mean he is dead after all. To complicate matters Aura's ghostly boyfriend Logan is kind of on the edge of turning into a rampaging Shade and that's definitely a bad thing...

This was a great book. Smith-Ready creates a complex and believable world and tackles all the social nuances that it would create wonderfully. She does a very good job of not getting bogged down in the teenage love triangle but instead makes it a wonderful part of a larger story.

Aura is a great character, she is believable and intelligent. Towards the end of the book there were some parts where I thought she was getting a bit obsessive about Logan, but I thought for the most part they were called-for. Many of the other characters are also very interesting and complex. I absolutely adored Zachary and can't wait to read more about him.

Smith-Ready's writing style is incredible readable and has a special something to it that just makes it better than a lot of other teen books out there. She's got the dialogue down perfect, she weaves in a bit of humor here and there, and does an excellent job describing things. The world she has created is very cool.

Overall I was very impressed with this book. It wraps up most of the plot but does end with one huge cliffhanger. I usually hate that, but in this book I kind of liked it and it really worked with the story. I am eager to read the sequel to this book, Shift. I am also happy that I have the first couple WVMP Radio urban fantasy books by her, I really want to read them now!

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