13 to Life by Shannon Delany

13 to Life by Shannon Delany

5 stars

Summary:

Jessica’s is struggling to deal with the death of her mother. Her father works a lot and her sister is always buried in a book. One friend is dealing with her own problems and the other one doesn’t understand why Jessica has to be the martyr. Jessica has had a crush on the running back on the football team for a while but she isn’t in his league. He’s never given her the time of day until the new boy Pietr takes notice of her. She is chosen to show Pietr around and he makes it clear what he thinks of her interest in the football player. But Jessica’s friend likes Pietr so that can’t work either. Will Jessica every find peace in her life? Can she hold things together as she is wrongfully accused of wrongdoing by the Principal? Will her Dad understand her constant lying? As things get darker in her small town, will she even survive to seventeen?

My thoughts:

Shannon Delany does a great job of giving the readers bits and pieces of the history of the characters without just summarizing it. The complexity of the plot is reveled slowly over many chapters. The reader is trying to guess what happened to Jessica’s Mom and what is Sarah’s recuperating from. I really enjoyed this aspect of the book. It added a lot of mystery. I loved that fact that Jessica’s football player crush finally notices her when Pietr does. I’m still curious about a lot of things that I hope get addressed in the second book in the series but enough was resolved in this book to keep me happy. There was no frustrating cliffhanger that might cause me throw the book across the room.

I loved the world that was created for this book. It’s not your normal paranormal world. There is this great Russian aspect to the book and even some mob activity. I admit that they threw me for a while in the book. I was trying to figure out the connection between the Russian mob and the wolf attack. I admit that I was surprised by the twist near the end. I didn’t see it coming at all and I normally at least have a hint. I am really too good at guessing in these kinds of books.

I loved the interaction between Pietr and Jess. I wonder what created that strong connection, it’s one of my lingering questions. It seems that there has to be something to explain the connection especially with the Matryoshka dolls.

I will admit that I got lost a few times. Some things were assumed and I had to re-read parts to understand but it felt like a challenge not a problem. Loved this one. Check it out.

Enjoy the read!