Giveaway and Review: "Notes from Ghost Town"

"Notes from Ghost Town"
by Kate Ellison

Publisher: Egmont USA
Release Date: Feb 12, 2012
Source: ARC sent by publicist

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary from goodreads.com:

They say first love never dies...

From critically acclaimed author Kate Ellison comes a heartbreaking mystery of mental illness, unspoken love, and murder. When sixteen-year-old artist Olivia Tithe is visited by the ghost of her first love, Lucas Stern, it’s only through scattered images and notes left behind that she can unravel the mystery of his death.

There’s a catch: Olivia has gone colorblind, and there’s a good chance she’s losing her mind completely—just like her mother did. How else to explain seeing (and falling in love all over again with) someone who isn’t really there?

With the murder trial looming just nine days away, Olivia must follow her heart to the truth, no matter how painful. It’s the only way she can save herself.

My Review:

I really enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would! Usually books with this many issues are difficult for me to read, but this author did a great job of keeping things hopeful even in dire circumstances. I love that Liv really works hard to fix things for her mother, herself, and even her ghost best friend, Lucas. She is dealing with so much, but she never loses hope that things will get better, and tries hard to make it so. She never wallows in self pity or feels defeated. The tone of the book never felt depressing to me, and that is something that I pick up on whenever a book is the least bit depressing. I'm so glad I took a chance and read this book even though I had doubts that I would enjoy it.

I was caught up by the mystery in this book. It did remind me of the popular mystery tv shows, where there are many suspects to investigate before the real culprit is revealed. Even with this formula though, it wasn't predictable for most of the book for me.

The romance plays out really well. It's not your typical love triangle, since one of the players is a ghost. I think there is a lot of heart in this love triangle, and possibly Liv's decision has to more to do with herself and her own growth than it does about weighing the pros and cons of the boys themselves.

After I finishing, I really felt hopeful and satisfied. Then a while later, I realized that maybe there were some loose ends to be tied up. However, some of that may be because of the style of suspect after suspect being questioned, so then after they were 'off the hook' we didn't really get to know the rest of their story. I can't really discuss the other loose end, because of spoilers, but it was just another thing to think about in the outcome.

Main Characters: 4/5
Supporting Characters: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Romance: 4/5
Uniqueness: 4/5
Cover: 3/5 (the new cover is much less scary than the ARC cover though!)
Writing: 4/5

Bottom Line: A great mystery with paranormal elements. I don't think this one is as scary or intense as some other similar books are, and that made me enjoy the book much more.

Kate's blog: http://kateellison.com/index.html

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Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notes-from-ghost-town-kate-ellison/1110504399

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Notes-Ghost-Town-Kate-Ellison/dp/1606842641

Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781606842645

Giveaway includes a hardcover copy of "Notes from Ghost Town" as well as a paperback copy of "The Butterfly Clues"

GIVEAWAY RULES

The publicist has generously provided a hardcover copy of "Notes from Ghost Town" as well as a paperback copy of "The Butterfly Clues" to a lucky reader of my blog.

All you have to do is follow my blog publicly and fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Please follow publicly or I can't tell that you are following :)

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Books will be mailed out by the publisher

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Ends April 11

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