Birthright
How do you live with yourself when you decide who dies? Ava Parks would have killed for an iPod for her sixteenth birthday. Anything would have been better than coming into her birthright of being a seeker for the Grim Reaper, an arrangement made by her fallen angel ancestor in exchange for his re-admittance to heaven. And she isn’t just any seeker—she finds souls that have the potential for becoming angels and sentences them to death. A year and two souls into her role as a seeker with her conscience overflowing with guilt, Ava comes up with a plan to thwart the system. When it goes awry, she is forced to submit the name of a classmate, Cole Fowler, an ornery, rough around the edges guy who always seems to come to her rescue, whether she likes it or not. Her feelings for Cole prompt her to intervene, and she saves him from death, upsetting the Grim Reaper’s agenda. While Ava schemes to find a way to save Cole, she learns he has some secrets of his own. She lets him believe he is protecting her, and not the other way around, until a final showdown with the Grim Reaper forces Ava to make choices Cole may never forgive.
This book was very addicting, once you start it’ll be hard to put down so clear your schedule as you’ll be stuck to its pages until you’re done. I enjoyed the story as it was something different from what I’ve read lately and definitely had a unique plot line.
Jessica Ruddick’s sharp dialogue and humorous repartee between her characters had a strangely reminiscent quality of Joss Whedon’s Buffy days.
Her plot is fast paced and the storyline loosens quickly into a byzantine but fun tale. Boredom is NOT something you should feel when it comes to her work especially with that great dialogue and unique world she’s created.
Even knowing what I was getting into I still felt surprised at how much it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be but in a good way. When it comes to the YA genre you get recycled plot lines so often or stuff that is similar enough just with different genders, times or settings it was a refreshing change of pace to fall into a chronicle like this.
This book deserves a look, a read, a chance to pull you into something different than what you’re used to as Ruddick provides an escape into something special. Best of all, it’s only book one in a new series.
Thank you to Netgalley and Jessica Ruddick for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from netgalley.com