A Dead best friend, a Dead best enemy, & PINK!

The blog tour for yet another exciting YA novel begins today. This story has dry humor, souls that just don't want to 'cross-over', and mystery. I'm excited to be a part of it to start this week. My part equals a review, so go forth and read. Oh, and there are three copies up for grabs, so make sure you enter the giveaway!!

Title: Date With the Dead
Author: Chris Myers
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Publisher: Books on the Edge
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Released: First Edition - June 1, 2012
Pages: 227

Favorite Line/Passage: Bike reflectors are hard to see at night, so I don't look behind me but get off the road as far as I can. The headlights shine on me and light up the road in front of me. I'm right against the curb. Surely, he sees me. The SUV slows. The engine breathes on me. I don't look back. Why isn't he going around? The vehicle camps on my rear fender for a minute.

Description: Let me introduce sixteen-year-old Jolie Livingston, ghost hunter.

“Let’s face it. Some of us can’t be too picky. My closest and only friend Drew is this really hot dead guy, but it bites that the self-absorbed princesses (SAPs) at school cannot even see him. That’s right, I can communicate with the dead. It’s the living I have trouble with. Mom and I inherited this awesome crib in Plymouth, MA. It’s quite a step-up from the homeless shelter in New Orleans, but there’s a catch. We can’t afford the past due mortgage, so I’m working on that.

“I started a ghost hunting business called Ripsters. Somehow I’ve managed to recruit Brittany, a glamour SAP smothered in pink, and a techie who’s allergic to ghosts. Brit actually thinks he resembles the R&B singer Chris Brown. All that pink has clouded her vision. They both have special talents I’m hoping will be useful to our venture. Right now, we’re working for a family in need of major therapy due to a dead guy with a hole in his head. If we solve this case, the Paranormal Guild may invite us to join their underground society for the psychically gifted, though I’m not counting on my golden ticket anytime soon.

“Hayden, a really cute guy, who lost his Wiccan mother, wants to join us, but my grandmother warned me about his kind. I often find myself torn between my loyalty to Drew and my secret attraction to Hayden, even though it’s highly unlikely a living guy as hot as Hayden would be interested in a girl cozy with the dead.”

AWARDS
Top 100 semi-finalist of 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel
2008 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Contest Finalist for Ripsters

NIGHTSTAND WORTHY!

My Splats: a mystery within a mystery within a mystery, exploring the Otherly among us.

Jolie is such an interesting character with a unique teen voice full of snark and wit. She's not the average girl. Not even the average ghost hunter. Her best 'guy' friend--pretty much the only friend she has--is no longer alive. Yup, he's DEAD, which is perfect for her personality. She's not the close-and-cuddly kind. Problem being, she can see him and talk to him, but can't seem to touch him. Apparently, someone with her gifts should be able to.

The opening drew me in immediately, making me curious about why Jolie could chat with ghosts and how that would fit into the story. The paranormal/ghost hunting terminology seemed authentic and accurate, not giving me any pause at all. It was used it ways that flowed with the story. 

I absolutely LOVED the relationship between Jolie and her dead best guy friend, Drew! He is fantastic, a character with twists of his own. One twist has to do with teenage suicide, which Myer subtly touches upon, yet enough to make teen readers think and adult readers see how misunderstood it can be. I liked that. (No, I didn't just give a spoiler away. Promise!) 

Myer throws all sorts of boulders at Jolie from financial issues to an amateur ghost hunter creeping on her territory to an unsolved murder/disappearance that happens to affecting a young girl's health. The adventure escalates, as Jolie and her associates nose around into the mystery of a local man's disappearance. Uncertainty wraps around every corner of this story. At times, I felt like Hansel & Gretel being fed crumb after crumb--a total hook.  

Purchase the eBook at Amazon. Visit Chris on Twitter, Facebook, her Website, & her Blog. For more tour stops, go HERE!

a Rafflecopter giveaway