Title: Vengeance
Author: Megan Miranda (Twitter)
Publisher: Walker Children's
Publish Date: Februrary 4, 2014
Genre: YA, Paranormal Mystery
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher

Nobody really believes in a curse. Until you know the people who disappear. Too much coincidence, you look for reason. Too much death, you grasp for something to blame. Carson pulled Delaney out and he died on the side of the road with her mouth pressed to his. Her air in his body. Troy. She told the cops it was suicide. Didn't matter. The lake released her and grabbed another.

But when Decker's father dies in a pool of spilled water on their kitchen floor, all Decker can feel is a slow burning rage. Because he knows that Delaney knew that his dad was going to die. She knew and backed out of his house and never said a word. Falcon Lake still has a hold on them both, and Decker can't forgive Delaney until he knows why.

Vengeance, much like its predecessor, Fracture, gives readers a sampling of everything we like all in one novel. Offering us romance, friendship, betrayal, mystery, paranormal and more, it's a whirlwind of a novel that captures us from the get-go, pulling us in with a near-immediate loss that serves to solidify our investment in the story and our characters' plights. Author, Megan Miranda, does it again, crafting a novel that's rife with twists, turns and unanswered questions, demanding the readers read on to understand the true nature of the events as they unfold. It's the type of novel that you can easily read in one sitting, but you can't help but want to make it last longer.

What I found most intriguing about Vengeance is that while it's presented as a sequel, I felt it could almost stand alone, so it was more of a companion novel than anything else. Ms. Miranda gives readers plenty of backstory to set the stage for readers that haven't yet read Fracture and, surprisingly enough, a new viewpoint makes it a completely new story, as well. While the first novel was written from Delaney's point of view, the second novel is written from Decker's. I though it was incredibly well done how very distinct each voice was, and while Delaney's voice was more confused and anguished, Decker's story was much more volatile, which well fit the title and the mood of the story.

Vengeance was a careful balance of mystery, a touch of tortured romance and a psychological thriller, with each element being thrust into the limelight for key elements of the story. I found this to be an extremely well-played asset of the novel because it gave us a little bit of everything without ever inundating us with too much. However, I will say that the novel's pacing felt a bit off to me. For the first third of the book, I was blown away by the speed of the action and mystery's progression. However, by the second third, everything seemed to slow down, and it remained that way until the final third of the novel, which picked right back up again. I would have liked to see a more interspersed degree of speeds, if only to keep my heart racing the whole time.

Furthermore, it must be said that Vengeance does offer us a bit more predictability than its predecessor. While very well-written, I found some of the clues and indicators to be a bit too obvious for my liking. With a mystery novel, I like things to remain a guessing game until the 11th hour, so I felt a bit cheated by that. I will say, however, that I actually really enjoyed Decker's point of view this time around. While Delaney's viewpoint had me a bit claustrophobic at times, Decker's anger and volatility kept things spicy and alive. 

Overall, despite a few hiccups, I quite enjoyed Vengeance. I do think I enjoyed the first novel more, but I can definitely appreciate the direction the author took the story, and I still absolutely love her writing style. I give it a high 3.5 out of 5, and I highly recommend it to fans of YA, especially those who enjoy mysteries and psychological thrillers. 

I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.

Title: Fracture
Author: Megan Miranda (Twitter)
Publisher: Walker Children's
Publish Date: January 17, 2012
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 262
Source: ARC Trade

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine - despite the scans that showed significant brain damage.

Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

Delaney died that night. She was standing on the ice, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in the hospital with only brief memories of what happened to her. Eleven minutes. That’s how long it took for her to be rescued from the icy water below the surface, and in those eleven minutes, Delaney touched the other side. But things are different now. Delaney is drawn to the dying, and she feels a sort of pull towards the other side. Everything’s changing, and Delaney needs to make sense of what’s happening to her – and why her feelings for her best friend, Decker, have suddenly changed.

I like drama. It’s no secret. I like it when things are messy and in disarray (in novels, of course, not real life). Fracture is one of those novels that touches on everything that is a little bit messy and out of place. Focusing more on nature of relationships and sense of self than anything else, Fracture touches on the very soul of humanity and brings it to light. Author Megan Miranda has crafted a delicate novel that perfectly merges dark with light, broaches difficult topics such as death and dying and captures a host of beautiful characters in a poignant and powerful novel. Merging a beautiful story line with sweet, poignant prose, Fracture stands out. .

I’m not a huge fan of love triangles or quadrangles, and that’s no secret, so having read a few reviews for Fracture, I was a bit concerned. Once I was about halfway through the novel though, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the nature of Fracture focused more heavily on Delaney, her condition and the aftermath of the trauma of her accident than anything else. Delaney was a great character. She was so relatable and honest, painful and pure. There was an innocence about her that resonated throughout the events of the story and fueled the plot forward. Decker, too, was a brilliant character, perfectly embodying the loyal best friend role. I will say, however, that the numerous secondary characters, including Janna, Troy felt a bit flat for me. There were so many issues, actions and inactions that felt unresolved when I closed the final pages on Fracture that I felt a bit let down. While I loved that Fracture stepped boldly into a realm of God complexes, survivor’s guilt, stress and everything messy that has to do with death and dying, I think it could have been fleshed out a bit for more power. The novel was hard-hitting, indeed, but I felt it moved too fast to leave any strong, lasting emotions in me. .

Overall, I think Fracture is going to make a powerful in the statement in the YA community. It’s a rich idea with great writing, and though there were some flaws, in my humble opinion, it wasn’t a bad book by any means. I give it a 3.5 out of 5, and I recommend it to all fans of YA, especially those who enjoy contemporary and paranormal fiction. .