Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

The timeless tale of Romeo and Juliet gets a new twist when we discover what happens to their souls after that fateful night in the tomb. Now one is on the quest to insure true love in others while the other is out to destroy it.

Shakespeare's tale supposedly isn't the true telling of the love between Romeo and Juliet. The details are a little sketchy, but it basically ends up that Romeo sells his soul to the "Mercenaries" in order to insure Juliet's happiness, but when she kills herself, her soul joins the "Ambassadors." Now their two souls are on a mission. The Ambassadors fight to bring soul mates together while the Mercenaries are working to tear lovers apart and destroy the Ambassadors. Juliet and Romeo are now on a mission to help/hurt two soul mates. Juliet's soul inhabits the body of Ariel and believes it's her mission to bring Ariel's friend Gemma together with her soul mate Ben. However, Juliet has fallen in love with Ben and he shares her feelings, which isn't right because he belongs with Gemma. In the meantime, Romeo is there getting in Juliet's way. Also, this mission is different than all of their other missions. They are alone, being haunted by specters which can only mean this is their last mission, which doesn't bode well for their souls. Will true love prevail or will their souls be doomed?

This is an interesting book, especially when you see the parallels with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. There's a love element and a creepy element with the specters. Some of the Mercenary and Ambassador elements were a bit confusing, but I listened to this on audio book, so it was difficult to reread. The story pulls you in because you're worried about Juliet and the threat of Romeo and the specters. Then you're wondering how she'll get Ben and Gemma together when Gemma is such an unworthy character, but you're hoping she can find a way to be with Ben because they're such a perfect pair. There's a lot going on, but it all fits together into a intriguing love story that's not overly sappy.

Overall though, it's an interesting book and ends with enough of a cliffhanger to pull readers in for the sequel - Romeo Redeemed.
MMK

Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

This is quite similar to the TV series titled Ghost Whisperer. Lenzi, as it turns out is a reincarnated 'speaker". Someone chosen by the IC to assist hindered souls in moving on. With the soul of her protector inside guarding her, she talks with these souls and does whatever needs to be done to allow them to rest. At outset she does not know any of this, she fights when her protector approaches her to get things moving. Ordinarily reincarnates remember their pasts but Lenzi does not. Eventually she first trusts then falls in love with her protector, dumping her long time boyfriend in the process. The way that goes down seems mean for a good spirit like herself. Alden, her protector, disobeys rules to save Lenzi from the angry boyfriend. He then must face a disciplinary committee and perhaps be destroyed forever. Lenzi helps the boyfriend move on as a hindered soul. She gets on with assisting souls and even resisting a malevolent spirits that carve words into her skin. There are exorcisms involving holy water and several other protectors. Lenzi has a personal malevolent soul which has yet to be made to cross over permanently. There is one nasty encounter with this soul. This IC board has quite a list of rules and points to be gotten and seems kind of silly to me. Actually if I think too hard about this the entire story is a bit corny. Its all derivative. I can point to the movie the Exorcist for some of the material here for instance as well as Ghost Whisperer mentioned above. Having said that, the paranormal genre is very popular with teens now so perhaps teens not familiar with the tv show and movie and other bits gotten from elsewhere could get into it. Except for Lenzi's personal malevolent soul things are pretty well resolved in the end but I suspect there will be a trilogy here anyway. jdw 1/3/12

White Crow - Marcus Sedgwick

Winterfold, England used to be a booming town, but the ocean has swallowed up parts of the town over the years. Rebecca and her father head there for the summer because her father called off a search for a young girl back in Greenwich, and that lead to the girls death. Rebecca explores the village, and encounters Ferelith. Ferelith has grown up in Winterfold, and knows the history of the town. She takes Rebecca to old graveyards, the only church left standing, and a building called the Hall. Back in 1798, a French doctor came to the town and was trying to raise evil spirits to possess people. Ferelith straps Rebecca in the chair where the victims once sat. Rebecca is frightened and scared. After a few hours Ferelith comes back to release her, and Rebecca doesn't want to be friends anymore. Rebecca heads home and realizes that the necklace her father gave her must have fell off in the Hall. She heads back and Ferelith is there waiting for her while a thunderous storm closes in and threatens to take away the Hall.

This book was ok. It left me a bit confused, and unsatisfied as a reader. I did like the journal entries from 1798, which mirrored what was going on with Rebecca coming to town as the new girl. I wish the entries had been incorporated more into the story instead of being just put in between the chapters. The ending and the title of the book left me confused. I think I was expecting more out of the book than what was written.

T.B. 8/16/11