Review: Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

Hardcover, 292 pages

Published: Sept 2011 by Harper Teen

Source: Borrowed

It was a beautiful, warm summer day, the day Danny died.

Suddenly Wren was alone and shattered. In a heartbroken fury, armed with dark incantations and a secret power, Wren decides that what she wants--what she "must" do--is to bring Danny back.

But the Danny who returns is just a shell of the boy Wren fell in love with. His touch is icy; his skin, smooth and stiff as marble; his chest, cruelly silent when Wren rests her head against it.

Wren must keep Danny a secret, hiding him away, visiting him at night, while her life slowly unravels around her. Then Gabriel DeMarnes transfers to her school, and Wren realizes that somehow, inexplicably, he can sense the powers that lie within her--and that he knows what she has done. And now Gabriel wants to help make things right.

But Wren alone has to undo what she has wrought--even if it means breaking her heart all over again.

This was one of those books that I remember all the fuss when it came out but then the excitement died off (as it usually does once it's been out awhile) and I sort of forgot about it.  When a friend loaned it to me I didn't feel a strong urge to read it, but I pushed myself to do so and I'm so glad I did!

I ended up thoroughly enjoying the book but at times I had to remind myself to put myself in Wren's shoes.  She made some bad decisions, but the fact that she knew this and admitted to it without any denying of her stupidity, kind of made it all okay.  I did find myself a bit annoyed that she wouldn't ask for help from anyone and once she had someone who could help and wanted to help she would push him away.  But once again, putting myself in her shoes helped me understand a bit better, though not completely.  

The whole bringing her boyfriend back to 'life' thing was done before the book started, so we see the after effect of it all and I liked that.  This could have almost been a middle book if the author had chose to start the story earlier, but I think I liked where she chose to start it.  It worked well.

And while we didn't really get to know Danny from 'before' we do know him a bit from Wren's memories.  But this also makes it easier for us to fall for Gabriel, the new boy in Wren's life.  While I felt like things progressed quickly with them, I did really enjoy it.  And Gabriel himself was absolutely an amazing character. 

This was a fun and fast read.  I loved the whole 'witchy' aspect and am looking forward to more of Wren and her exploits with her powers.

There's some bad language (including the f-word) but other than that it was fairly clean.  While we know there was sex in the past there's nothing much on the page and no descriptions.