Friday, November 25, 2011

She Smells the Dead by E.J.Stevens

Author:  E.J. Stevens
Publisher:  Sacred Oaks Press
Pub. Date:  September 9, 2010
Genre:  Young Adult Paranormal Romance




It's the beginning of senior year and Yuki's psychic awareness of ghostly spirits is threatening to ruin her life. Her ability to sense spirits of the dead isn't glamorous like on TV.
SHE SMELLS THE DEAD.
Yuki is being visited in her dreams and suspects that her friend Calvin is involved in something strange.
Will Yuki be able to save the spirits and herself?

THE FAERYS VIEW

First off-I am amazed that I haven’t read the Spirit Guide series by E.J. Stevens until now! How could I miss such a gem of a read! She Smells The Dead is a One-Sit-Read for me-literally and figuratively! Once I picked it up, I didn’t put it down until I finished it and then I quickly downloaded the rest of the series on to my Kindle and did the same. I read the entire series in 2 days and now I want more!


E.J. did a beautiful job in all aspects of her novel but what impressed me the most was her character descriptions; the main character Yuki (really Vanessa, but that’s a story within itself!) quickly endeared herself to me. She is 5 ft nothing, Goth and tortured by the jocks at school who think she’s a witch but Yuki’s the kind of girl who doesn’t let them see how it hurts her, she’s a tough cookie on the outside but has a heart of gold. She’s a vegan and loves showing her own uniqueness in her sense of style. So what if it happens to be knee-high lace ups, torn tights and white make-up-she is proud of her style and wears it well. Yuki values her friends Calvin and Emma. Calvin or Cal, is a meat eating hunk who’s as anti-goth as they come but has been friends with Yuki forever and Emma, straight laced, organized, factual, extreme animal rights activist and dresses basically only in beige don’t seem to be who you’d pick out of a line up as Yuki’s friends but they are loyal and supportive of each other. E.J.’s description of the trio’s friendship is realistic and true, she could have been talking about my own besties. The secondary characters, particularly Simon, are a joy and I couldn’t wait to read more about them.


Told in Yuki’s POV, I was completely engrossed in a wondrous tale about an unusual young woman with the gift of smelling the dead and by smelling the dead she learns she can help those spirits that are reaching out to her for help or closure. There is so much more to the story then this, though. E.J. incorporates young love, hilarity in the form of Yuki’s personality and her interactions with her friends. Yuki’s favorite saying, ‘Son of a Dung Beetle’ is so apropos and Cal often calls her ‘Dung Beetle Princess ’. The story holds many secrets for the reader to discover.


There’s quite a bit of mysticism involved, Cal is a practitioner of many variations of meditation and vision quests. Yuki finds that her dreams are prophetic and that she has a spirit guide and the form of that spirit guide is a riot but you must read to find out! Interestingly enough, Cal has his own supernatural ability to cope with and it ties in with Yuki, making the story all that much more fascinating. My only complaint is that the books are to short, I want more pages of Yuki and company!


She Smells the Dead by E.J. Stevens is a captivating read that I completely enjoyed on so many levels. The next in the series, Spirit Storm promises to be as fanfaerytastic as She Smells the Dead! I know this because I’ve already read it!


THE BOOK FAERY SAYS ROCK ON E.J. STEVENS!

6 comments:

  1. Nice review Kristi.
    Will have to read this soon. Been sitting on my e-reader for a while now.

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  2. I've been curious about this book since I heard the title! LOL

    Oh and now I'm more curious because of the review. Rock on indeed!!

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  3. I've seen this one around here and there. Haven't decided if I'll read it yet. Thanks for the review...it helps to hear what others think.

    Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
    bookluvrmindy

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  4. I've borrowed the ebook of She Smells the Dead through Lendle, but I think I'm going to have to go ahead and buy it. I've only heard good things about the series. Something short would work really well for me right now!
    Ruby

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  5. Oh I do want to get this series. It sounds like a neat take on death with the main character here. :) So glad to see you enjoyed it!

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  6. Kristi-

    So glad you liked this as much as me! Don't you just love Yuki and Cal. I want a Cal! But I feel guilty for saying that. I pretty much do, just not the mysticism stuff or that special gift. Could any three people be more different? E.J. sent trading card to me with pictures of all of them a couple of months back. I'll send you the link so you can check the guys out.

    Heather

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