Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can’t ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.
Just like Chosen, I jumped at the chance to review Here. Denise has slowly moved into my top five must read authors. Her writing is captivating and the worlds she creates are unique.
I felt for Julia. Unable to believe that she wasn't responsible for the death of her best friend, she becomes depressed; she makes herself invisible; her grades are slipping. Her family was slowly torn apart by the accident. At school, when she is noticed, the other students bully her, especially the most popular girl. It gets worse when Julia becomes visible to Evan. He volunteers to tutor Julia, which comes as a surprise to everyone, including her. She doesn't understand why he's suddenly interested in her.
There is a lot of the story I would love to talk about but, frankly, I'm not a fan of spoilers. I don't want to give away any of the storyline. I would like to add that about half way through the book, my mind started to slowly figure it out. I knew where the story was going, and I knew, if I was right, I would be happy with the outcome.
But, you know what? I was wrong. My mind went in a different direction than Denise's writing. I absolutely love (bold/underline/exclamation points!) where Denise took the story. In all honesty, I think Here and any other book that follows in the series could become the next "Twilight"; the next teen/YA sensation.
I have already recommended this book to my real life friends, many of other popular YA series. I promised them they would not be disappointed if they read it.
Falling in line with Chosen, I was so focused on the story of Julia and Evan that I almost missed my subway stop. I looked up at the last minute and realized where I was and if I didn't jump off the train I would end up about 70 blocks or so north of where I needed to be.
Hands down, without a doubt, Here gets 5 out of 5 stars from me.
Don't forget to head on over to Denise's tour page at CLP Blog Tours for your chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card!
