Declan Murphy isn’t the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he’s trying to escape the demons of his past.

When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can’t resist writing back. Soon, he’s opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they’re not actually strangers. When life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, sparks will fly as Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.

AKA significant signs for a good book

Here ? The Brightest Stars by Anna Todd

– (NOT WANTING TO PUT THE BOOK DOWN – WHICH INCLUDES CARRYING AN E-BOOK READER LITERALLY EVERYWHERE I GO, ALLNIGHT READING SESSIONS AND SNEAKING OUT OR IN PLACES INCLUDING TOILETS TO READ A FEW PAGES)

✔ – It started out great for that – but after a few chapters it lost steam and I had no problem in going out for a coffee with friends without thinking about the book. That was so not what I expected when I remember reading the After series from this author I expected the story to start slow and heat up but that did not happen it remained a medium heat for me.

– (TALKING WITH YOUR BOOK – NOMATTER WHERE YOU ARE AND WHO IS WATCHING YOU)

✖ – There was not talking involved while I read this book. Instead the further I read the more quiet I became and started wondering what was going to happen next. In fact the only loud talking happened at the end – when I realized that there were to little pages left for the story to come to an end. And that talking involved kind of a “that can not be seriously IT?”

– (CRYING AND/OR LAUGHING – -OUT LOUD- NOMATTER WHERE YOU ARE)

✖ – nope sorry none of that

– (THE INTENSE FEELING OF WANTING TO PUNCH OR HUG A VIRTUAL CHARACTER IN REAL LIFE)

✔ – Yeah there was a little of that I have to admit and it was more of the punching than the hugging kind. I remember wanting to punch Harding from the After series – but for totally different reasons. Here it I did not even remotely feel the same confidence when it came to connecting with the characters.

– (REMEMBERING THE PLOT/ THE AUTHOR / THINGS AND/OR CONVERTING CONTENT TO YOUR REAL LIFE)

✖ – its been some days and the most I remember is my irritation about expecting something different. I know my thoughts in total sound like this is a bad book and I am sorry about that – it is not others in fact might love it. It is just that when you had these intense feelings about another book from the same author all other plots later have to compare to that and in that comparison this book so far does not hold a candle in my world.

My Essence ?

I read the “After” series by this author and maybe I could have guessed this book to be a series ? not sure if there was any indication of that when the book was offered to me as an advance copy. At least I can not remember seeing anything and lots of authors write both series and standalones. I liked the plot idea of this book a lot – but still something threw me off my game. I am not sure what it was. I loved the “After” series a lot as the author had a real talent for the heavy stories that go deep. Maybe I felt this story was not deep enough ? Or was it the cliffhanger? The fact that I dislike to ARC-read series? I am not sure but it was not what I expected. That does not mean it was BAD it’s just that you have a certain expectation when you pick up a book of an author you read before. I will def. read the next part(s) too – I became to invested in the story but I might wait until the series is complete – I cannot “un-break” what other authors destroyed for me when it comes to waiting on the follow ups. In my case the line does say “Suspense is killing me” its more “Suspense is killing IT for ME” as I read to many books to come back a year later to read the next part and still remember the old plot enough to smoothly continue.