Review- Shadow Hills

Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus
Publisher: Egmont
Published: July 13, 2010

My Rating 5 Stars
After her sister Athena's tragic death, it's obvious that grief-stricken Persephone "Phe" Archer no longer belongs in Los Angeles. Hoping to make sense of her sister's sudden demise and the cryptic dreams following it, Phe abandons her bubbly LA life to attend an uptight East Coast preparatory school in Shadow Hills, MA -- a school which her sister mysteriously mentioned in her last diary entry before she died.
Once there, Phe quickly realizes that something is deeply amiss in her new town. Not only does Shadow Hills' history boast an unexplained epidemic that decimated hundreds of its citizens in the 1700s, but its modern townies also seem eerily psychic, with the bizarre ability to bend metal. Even Zach -- the gorgeous stranger Phe meets and immediately begins to lust after -- seems as if he is hiding something serious. Phe is determined to get to the bottom of it. The longer she stays there, the more she suspects that her sister's untimely death and her own destiny are intricately linked to those who reside in Shadow Hills.(Synopsis from Egmont)

I was ecstatic when I received a signed copy of Shadow Hills in the mail from a friend. It had been about a week since it was released and I was dying to read it. Everyone said how good it was and how I needed to read it and I finally had it in my hands. Of course I got right on it as soon as it came in and let me tell you that it did not disappoint. It definitely lived up to my expectations and had me hooked from the start.

I thought the characters were well developed and really likable, Phe and Zach make a perfect couple in this one and have become one of my favorites. I loved Phe and her snarky comments, her determination to find out what was really going on in Shadow Hills and how easily she was able to love and care about those around her. Phe's group of normal human friends who are still very different from one another but very entertaining  gave me little break in between the chilling mystery that the story focuses on. I fell in love with Zach, he's not the usual bad boy that we see a lot in YA which don't get me wrong I love the bad boys too. Zach is a nice, sweet, caring and responsible guy with gorgeous eyes that is not used to doing bad things and hasn't broken any rules until Phe comes into his life and attracts trouble all around her which of course drags him into it because they are attracted to each other from the beginning.

Shadow Hills is filled with secrets about the town and the people in it that had me flipping the pages and staying up late at night trying to figure it all out. It's suspenseful, mystery filled, and magical, but is also a lot of fun and the romance in it will have you falling head over heels for Zach. What really had me at the edge of my seat was the science behind the powers that Anastasia explains in the story which I thought was pretty brilliant, also the reason behind Phe's dreams and the connection she has to Shadow Hills. We get a little history of Shadow Hills and it's past, about the epidemic and what really happened there. I was unable to put it down and was taking it with me everywhere I went, I'm also very happy that it didn't leave with a huge cliffhanger but I'm still eager to read a sequel because I want more of Phe and Zach. After taking a short break from paranormal books Shadow Hills was a breath of fresh air for me, I definitely recommend it!

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