Thursday, January 16, 2014

Review Time #53

Almost Dead by Kaz Delaney

A glitzy whodunit set amongst the Gold Coast elite and a hilarious romance between Macey Pentecost, the privileged teenager with a social conscience who just happens to see ghosts, and the good-looking surf champion Finn.


Macey's life has been turned upside down. Her mother has left, her father is absent and her two best friends (her brother Seth and his girlfriend Willow) are MIA. On top of that Macey is being visited by ghosts who need her help to 'move on'. But as wild as all that sounds, it's all under Macey's control until a rakish, good-looking spirit called Nick turns up ... in her bedroom!

Nick's a spirit with spirit who insists he's not dead, he's astral travelling and has a message for Macey: someone is out to get her. Macey's biting wit has got her in trouble before, so she's not surprised but when the threatening notes start turning up, she's seriously shaken. Does someone want her dead?

It's all rather disturbing but she's finding it hard to focus on who could mean her harm with the annoyingly handsome surf god Finn turning up at the most inopportune times and a father with a rather large surprise of his own.

Is it a case of bad timing? Or are these things somehow connected? And if they are, what on earth should she wear when she's solving the mystery?


Almost Dead is the new YA book from Kaz Delaney it is also some what of a companion to her other YA book Dead, Actually with some of the characters re-appearing. We follow Macey who for the last month has been seeing spirits and this time this spirit is insisting that they are still alive.

Nick is the lead singer of the band Pashton that Macey slammed on her blog about the lyrics not being original etc. and now Nick is in a coma after a car accident and people are starting to blame Macey. Nick knows Macey is in trouble but doesn't know who is doing it and wants her to have help from Finn his cousin.

Macey really has a bad week this in this book, her mother leaves her father, she finds out that her dad has another family so she has a half-sister and someone is stalking her. With her best friend Willow and her brother together out of the country she has no one to turn to now that she knows about her father's other family.

Finn is a champion surfer laid back, portrayed as a beach bum but knows how to look after a girl. He helps Macey through everything that she is going through and also knowing that Nick is around makes him feel slightly better.

The girls at Macey's private school are your typical snobby rich kids and Macey doesn't trust any of them. Even when they start hanging around because of the stalker. The relationship in this book progress a lot between the girls and Macey, Macey and her sister and the destruction of the relationship between Macey and her father which eventually is back to normal mainly because Macey is quite stubborn. They all play an important part in the story as the book goes on.

The revelation of the stalker was quite a shock even when I already had guessed who one of them was. It is a great story keeps you guessing and it being set in Australia was another great perk! Almost Dead is a different YA paranormal romance set on the Gold Coast which sucks you in until you have finished the book completely!

Thanks to Allen and Unwin Australia for the review copy!
Rating: 4/5

Keely xx

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