Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready

About the book

Shine is the third and final book in the Shade trilogy by Jeri Smith-Ready. The book was released on 7^th June 2012 by Simon & Schuster and it is 416 pages long.

Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads.com)

Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.

As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced she has a connection to the Shift. She’s trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura’s secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves...even if that means betraying her own heart.

What I thought

I absolutely loved the first two books in this trilogy but due to uni work and a stack of review books to get though, I only bought this one in January, months after it was released. However, I couldn’t wait to start reading it once it finally came though.

Jeri Smith-Ready hasn’t been afraid to give us some exciting but also heart breaking plots in the previous books in this trilogy and she definitely doesn’t stop with this one. Things with the DMP are heating up and they’re hot on the trail of Aura and Zachary. The DMP try to control everything possible to do with ghosts and shades but after the events surrounding Logan in book two, they know something is seriously wrong. There are some absolutely shocking things that happen in this book and although they aren’t good things, I loved the twists and turns.

As the protagonist, Aura is as fantastic as she has been throughout the whole trilogy. She has been through so much by this point and although she does break down now and again, it was so good to see her bravery shine through. Aura isn’t afraid to take on the DMP and challenge the things they believe is right and she doesn’t. She isn’t afraid to stand up for herself or her friends, both living and not. What I loved so much about Aura was that she saw the bigger picture and everything wasn’t about her.

Then there is Zachary. As much as I loved Logan, Zachary also has a place in my heart. Much research has gone into Zachary’s heritage and where he comes from so as a Scottish character, he is very believable. His accent and the language he uses are fantastic and very real. I really liked how Aura didn’t understand some of his words and was a bit confused by what he was saying at times. Certain things made me feel much more sorry for Zachary than I had done in the past and his parts of the plot were great, even though they were sad too.

Shine gave me everything that I wanted in this final book and more. The plot mixes time spent in America and getting to know the DMP more, with time spend in both Scotland and Ireland. The history and background information is so strong in this book and so much is elaborated from ideas used in the first two books. I feel as though everything in Shine was wrapped up very nicely and nothing was left unanswered. Overall, I don’t think I could have asked for a better finale.