Review: 13 to Life

13 To Life by Shannon Delany

published by St. Martin's Griffin.

$9.99 (paperback)

Genre: YA

308 pages

FTC: I will not be compensated for this review.

What it's about:

Something strange is stalking the small town of Junction…

When junior Jess Gillmansen gets called out of class by Guidance, she can only presume it’s for one of two reasons. Either they’ve finally figured out who wrote the scathing anti-jock editorial in the school newspaper or they’re hosting yet another intervention for her about her mom. Although far from expecting it, she’s relieved to discover Guidance just wants her to show a new student around—but he comes with issues of his own including a police escort.

The newest member of Junction High, Pietr Rusakova has secrets to hide--secrets that will bring big trouble to the small town of Junction—secrets including dramatic changes he’s undergoing that will surely end his life early.

My thoughts:
This is going to be another hard book to explain my thoughts on. I really liked it but can't tell you why. It's probably due to the fact that I really liked Pietr.

One thing that I wish the back of the book didn't say was that it is about werewolves. Because you know this from the beginning, everything that happens isn't all that shocking. You're waiting for Jess to catch up and learn everything so it takes some of the fun out of it. I would have liked for it to be a mystery. It takes Jess forever to learn what's going on. Like Jess says in the book, she is TDTD (too dumb to date). It is very true. Jess is a very awkward person. While she did do some pretty stupid things, like how she handles the whole Sarah situation (I really wanted to slap some sense into Jess for that whole thing), I did like how she did everything else. How she steps up when no one else will, and how she reacts to most situations. I think me and Jess are going to have a love hate relationship. It'll be interesting to see her character grow.

This is a first in a series. The ending will have you begging for the next book in the series. BUT you'll have to wait till Feb 15, 2011 for the next book.

My rating: 8/10