Blog Tour Review: Spectral by Shannon Duffy

Title: Spectral
Author: Shannon Duffy
Publisher: Tribute Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Category:  Paranormal
Release date: April 10th, 2012
Pages: 242 (ebook)
Rating: 3 out of 5
Source: Publisher
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Convinced she’s a part of the witness protection program, sixteen-year-old Jewel Rose is shuffled around the globe with her family like a pack of traveling gypsies. After arriving at lucky home twenty-seven, she stumbles upon a mysterious boy with magical powers claiming to be her guardian . . . and warning of imminent danger. Despite the obvious sparks between them, Jewel discovers a relationship is forbidden, and the more she learns about dark, brooding Roman, she begins to question who she can even believe—the family who raised her, or the supposed sworn protector who claims they’ve been lying to her all along.

 As she struggles to uncover who her family has really been running from, she is forced to hide her birthmark that reveals who she is. With new realities surfacing, unexplained powers appearing, and two tempting boys vying for her heart, Jewel battles to learn who she can trust in an ever growing sea of lies, hoping she’ll make it through her seventeenth birthday alive.

Spectral, with each of its chapters filled with page-turning mystery and witchcraft, ended up being completely different than what I was expecting after reading the first few pages.  As the story develops, the reader will start to feel more sympathy towards Jewel, our heroine in disguise.  At the young age of sixteen, she's spent her life being hauled from place to place.  Not only does that make it extremely difficult to make friends, she never quite feels like she's on the same page as the rest of her family.  Though loyal and obedient, Jewel will be the one to open Pandora's box and learn all of the secrets that have been kept from her throughout her lifetime.

Even though I mostly enjoyed Jewel as a character, something irked me about her that I can't quite put my finger on.  The only time I really felt like she deserved a bit of admiration was towards the end of the book, which happened to by my favorite bit.  The other characters were interesting as well, but there was also something keeping me from getting emotionally invested in them, which ultimately made a majority of the story mediocre.  If I had to choose a favorite, I'd say swoon-worthy Roman turned out to be a lot more sincere than the reader is originally lead to believe.

What I did love the most about Spectral was the plot.  I felt that it was very well-planned and still intriguing enough to keep me going even though the characters weren't always to my liking.  Without giving away the ending, I will say that I wasn't able to accurately predict anything that happened.  Even though some tiny clues are revealed earlier on in the story, I couldn't believe that Jewel had uncovered the biggest secret imaginable, making it difficult for her to trust absolutely everyone.

Shannon Duffy's idea of witches and their clans captivated me, and by the end of the book, my head was spinning with the thought of each person in each clan having one unique power rather than the idea of magic that most of us have in our minds.  Overall, Spectral was an interesting, attention-grabbing read filled with dark secrets and multiple life or death situations that will keep you on the edge of your seat.