Cute! ( )

This was my first time reading a Guardians/Demon story. It made for a nice change. The story was an interesting one. I liked the plot and the realistic dynamic of teenage, “I like two boys”, drama. Kate is picking up the pieces of her life, trying to get back to normal, after the accident. Her and her sisters are now living with her grandparents. She is able to see people’s auras and know their feelings by the colors. That is until she meets Patrick, who has a silver aura. She also sees a boy no one else is seeing who has the same color aura. She is attracted to Patrick but has a boyfriend already and does not know what his aura means. Her best friend Lee tries to help her sort it out but is hampered by several factors; she does not see auras, does not know what to make of Kate seeing invisible people and when the invisible boy shows himself, Lee is attracted to him. Kate does not tell Lee that the guy she likes is the invisible boy. While Kate is trying to decide if she can trust Patrick she starts seeing people with black auras. Now Kate must make her choices, of who to trust and which guy will be her boyfriend.As you can see this book is filled with intrigue, danger and romance. The author understands that the character is in an unbelievable situation and takes pains to give us insight into her thought patterns. I really liked that. It gave the character and the plot more creditability. The characters are likable and you are easily able to care about them. There were openings left at the ending that lead me to suspect Seers is the first book in a series. I found this book enjoyable enough that I look forward to that. I would recommend Seers as a good YA paranormal suspense/romance story.

I received this book from Net Galley. No compensation for review was offered or received. A review while appreciated was not mandatory. ( )

From the beginning, I was quite impressed with the writing, which is rather better than a number of YA novels, especially those in the paranormal romance genre. Given the author's youth, this is doubly impressive. There were, in the ARC at least, a few grammatical errors, which have hopefully been removed from the final version, such as a "must of" (instead of "must have" on page 250.

The plot is fairly standard YA paranormal fare. You have the beautiful girl with new powers and some sadness. Add in two attractive guys who both treat her like princes. Then throw in a dash of menace in the form of some evil demons. Stir in a quirky best friend and you're ready to go! For those who enjoy this genre, Seers will definitely satisfy. I know I enjoyed it, especially since one of the guys had a delightful Irish accent! Also, props to Frost for not writing his dialogue in dialect and letting people fill that in with their imaginations.

Kate was fairly likable for most of the book, given that she was in a weird place following her parents' deaths. However, by the end, I wanted to give her a stern talking to. If you don't like your boyfriend anymore, you should probably stop dating him. Leading someone on or sticking it out because you're afraid you'll end up alone are not acceptable responses.

All in all a great beginning to a paranormal romance series from a first time author. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the trilogy, since I expect Frost to just get better from here. ( )

I received the second book in this series from Net Galley to review, but I hadn't read this one yet, and I don't read out of order! So I put this one right to the top of my list, and I'm so glad I did!

Blurb from Goodreads:

For Kate Bennet, surviving the car wreck that killed her parents means big changes and even bigger problems. As she begins to see auras and invisible people, Kate must learn to trust Patrick O'Donnell, a handsome Guardian, or risk her life being overrun with Demons. She soon realizes that both she and her heart are in big-time trouble.

Cover:
I like the cover well enough. I actually don't think it does the story justice, to be honest. There is so much that could be done with the theme of the book. The color is beautiful, but I just don't get a sense of what the story is about at all. And even after having read the book, the cover doesn't make much sense to me. But it's still pretty, nonetheless.

Characters:
The characters in this book are very well developed. They definitely took on all their own personalities and it was easy to tell them all apart. I really was able to connect with them
Kate, the main female character, really does strike me as an actual teenage girl. She is mourning the loss of her parents and you can totally feel that from her. I love how she grows through this book, really coming into herself, despite any fears she might face. And I love that she is so loyal to people, especially her boyfriend Aaron, despite the fact that she truly doesn't want to be with him anymore. She seems quite un-selfish and deeply cares for those she loves: her sisters, her grandparents, Aaron, Lee. She is strong and resilient, smart and quick.
Patrick is just an awesome character. He's smart, funny and handsome, great qualities for a main male lead. I love how he is so protective of Kate and how he respects her wishes. Their connection is, of course, fairly immediate, but not quite insta-love, which is a nice change to see in a YA book. The author takes her time developing their relationship, letting them learn about one another
Aaron just annoyed me. He cares for Kate, but at the same time comes off as being totally selfish, while she is so unselfish when it comes to him. Lee is just an awesome best friend. She gives Kate the space she needs while still supporting her. She also helps her realize the direction she needs to go when Kate is confused. Jenna and Josie, Kate's younger twiin sisters, are definitely those annoying younger sisters. Yet Kate tolerates them so well. They are cute with their bickering.
Grandma is sweet and protective.
Grandpa, well, he just rocks. He is very supportive of Kate and really helps her to try and make the best choices she can.
And Toni, well, I just loved him. I think by far he is my favorite. He is so funny and quick witted. There was not way not to like him. Every interaction he has leaves you wanting more.
The other ancillary characters are nice. They are essential to the story in the way they help Patrick and Kate. There is not really a need for them to be more well developed at this point, unless they are going to be re-introduced in a major role in future books. The evil characters were hard to gauge. I didn't get much of a sense of them or what exactly they were about. I did see that they were just evil, and that was enough for this part of the series.

The Story line:
I love the paranormal aspects of this story. I have not really read any stories with guardians and seers, so this was new for me. I like how they work together to get the "bad guys." And the plot was not compacted, so it was easy to follow.
The pace of the story is nice. I found myself constantly wanting more and had a hard time putting it down when I had to do other things. There is just the right amount of action to sustain you until more happens. I like that it is not overpowering. I also loved how the author focused on growing the relationships between the characters. This seemed like such an important part of the story to me.
The romance aspect of this story is very sweet. I love how Kate struggles with her feelings for Patrick, but really does understand what is right and what is not seeing as she has a boyfriend already. Again, they take their time getting to know one another and let their feelings for each other grow.
One of the things that I disliked was how the author used POV in this book. It was not consistent. When the POV changed, it took me a bit to realize that it was a different character talking. I would have preferred more from Patrick's POV, as well. I'm not sure if we'll see that in the next book or not, but that would be nice. Perhaps chapter sub-headings would have helped me with this confusion. Certainly there is not necessarily the need to alternate each chapter with different POVs, but I just felt like that aspect of the story telling was lacking.

I commend the author on her storytelling. The language of the book was very good and not confusing at all. It flowed well from one sentence to the next. She did not overuse words or make you feel like she was trying to use words just to "beef" the story up. The story did not need that, anyway. The writing of this book does not make me think it was Frost's debut novel. She has a wonderful command of the English language.

I am looking forward to reading the next installment in this series! 4 out of 5 stars from me. ( )

3 out of 5SynopsisFor Kate Bennett, surviving the car wreck that killed her parents means big changes — and even bigger problems. As she begins to see auras and invisible people, Kate must learn to trust Patrick O'Donnell, a handsome Guardian, or risk her life being overrun with Demons. She soon realizes that both she and her heart are in big-time trouble.ReviewFirstly I would like to say what a sterling book for a debut author and one so young. Heather Frost is only in her very early twenties but writes as though she has been at it for years. Her use of english and sentence structure is exemplory. The title of this book threw me. The book is called Seers yet as far as I could tell Kate, our main character, can only see auras which tell emotions. In history a Seer should be able to tell the future and the see back into the past so...I would have preferred another title.The story (unfortunately for me) starts off so similar to many other YA books i've read of late i.e.the book is based around the school scenario with the high school jock as a boyfriend, parents suddenly die, lots of grief and trauma, cute new guy shows up at same said school, turns out he's an absolute hottie, girl can't tear her eyes away from his piercing pools etc. Yeah, you know the drill. I forgot the 'woe is me' theme too.Then we have the ''confession''. Where cute boy tells damsel in distress that he's her Guardian. Here to save her life when it needs saving...Half way through the book I began to feel like this was STILL nothing new but I kept going to see if it would pick up. What held the book together for me was the narrative. Except there was far too much of it. Frost spent about 20 pages writing about how the character, Kate, feels about new boy Patrick. And it went on and on and on...I did skip lots of pages here while scanning still just to check I hadn't missed anything. The build up between Patrick and Kate is over half the book and personally just lost its edge and became dull with a hint of...JUST GET ON WITH IT...The actual story theme was okay but lacked any oommff and towards the edge it was all a little too nice and easy for a story plot.I probably won't read this book again but as I said in the beginning Heather Frost is an excellent writer. I just hope there's less narrative and more story in the next one. ( )