You’ll never miss the sunlight until it’s gone.Sixteen-year-old Echo Navarri, daughter of world-famous archaeologists, Alice and Peter Navarri, had spent her life traveling from one expedition to the next as her parents unearthed lost civilizations.On their thirteenth dig, Midnight, Echo’s twin sister, disappears without a trace. This prompts a year-long search that leaves the family nearly … family nearly broken.
In an attempt to find some closure they reluctantly host a mock funeral for Midnight without ever recovering her remains.
Nearing the one year anniversary of Midnight’s assumed death, Echo is sent to live with her eccentric Aunt Luna who is the caretaker of the centuries old Navarri Estate in Port Royal, Maine.
Echo attempts to settle into her new life in Port Royal, but soon finds that she’s destined for adventure as the mystery of her family’s history, the sunless town, and its oddly intriguing people teeter on the supernatural.
“Twilight meets Charmed.”
Dive into this exciting new paranormal series for fans of Twilight, Charmed, and Buffy.
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Echo Navarri thought she was exchanging an unusual life with her parents for a more settled life with her aunt in Port Royal. She also thought that paranormal creatures were fictional. She was wrong on both counts.
Echo is a teenager with whom the reader quickly develops empathy, developing the understanding that one can be flawed and ideal, weak and strong, and perfectly imperfect all at the same time. Her experiences of family, love, loss, friendship and self-esteem are relatable for readers, while her determination, confidence, loyalty and honesty about herself and others make her a character that readers can admire and respect. Her introversion, awkwardness and bookishness make a refreshing change from the ‘social butterfly’ or ‘fairy tale princess’ style heroines who seem so popular.
Supported by her friends and her aunt, Echo navigates her way through a story that is engaging and interesting, full of challenges and change, punctuated by failures and victories along the way.
The story is well crafted and well-written, with some great surprises and unpredictable twists. The characters, settings, and plot combine to deliver a book that holds strong appeal to Young Adult and paranormal romance readers.
13 Ways to Midnight’ is an excellent opening to a four book series which this reader is keen to enjoy.
Secrets, so many secrets. As the story unravels more come to light. I think I will leave you right there. Find your 13 ways to midnight.
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“Curiosity is for the devil and fairytales.”
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This was an entertaining, quick read for me. I really liked a lot about it, but it did fall into some YA tropes a few times, hence the three stars. The characters are interesting, albeit not as richly developed as they could have been – they felt familiar, like I’d seen their shadows in other books… That’s not necessarily a deal-breaker for me. I like characters and stories that don’t require a lot of effort to follow – pure entertainment is as good a reason to read as any other, after all. Still, while I was fairly thoroughly entertained throughout, I found that after I finished, I was not itching for another installment (even though it clearly ended with a nod in that direction).
That’s not to say that Echo and Midnight’s story isn’t worth your time – there were some cool, original elements here, and the writing is very easy to follow and engaging. And there were more than a few very clever quotes/insights, as you can see. If you’re looking for a darkly light (make any sense?) YA distraction, this one fits the bill nicely..
One of my new faves
Loved this book!! I originally started reading it because the cover was really cool, and the blurb sounded interesting. But the story itself got my attention right away and I was up late every night reading it because I didn’t want to put it down! Rue Volley painted amazing pictures with her words and the characters in the story had great personalities. I know that the blurb compares this to Twilight or Charmed, but just because it has a flair of magic, I wouldn’t put it in the same class as those. It is in a class all of its own. I find it reminded me more of the movie “Beautiful Creatures” but with a different storyline. It had a bit of a darkness to it, and a lot of mystery. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!!
Too to trite. Almost stupid in the attempts to be funny.
This was one of those books that I specifically look for. It is a great read, and I can’t wait to see where the story goes. The only reason it is less than 5 stars is that the first 10 chapters were full of editing mistakes, so hopefully the author got better with that in the series.
OMG! What an Amazing Journey!!
Review
Rating
5 out of 5 Hearts
OMG! What an Amazing start to Miss Volley’s newest Series! I Love the picturesque detail in 13 Ways to Midnight! So easy to visualize the scenes as they play out like a movie.
Echo Navarri has been tbrough a lot already for a sixteen year old, it is the loss of her sister that starts a series of events for young Echo. Trying to move forward after the passing of a close loved one is… difficult, especially when the body is not there to say goodbye to.
Rue Volley has created a world of intrigue, suspenseful twists and, “Say What,” turns that blew me away. Full of raw emotion, action, love, loss, lust, and more, this is a wonderful self discovery novel. High-Five on a job well done.
Go Get Ya Some!!
I think this needs to either be rewritten or it will have to pack two books into the sequel. It was hard to follow what was happening because there weren’t many descriptors beyond the main characters. I had to reread several parts because I felt as though I accidentally skipped over paragraphs or important moments, to find out that I hadn’t missed it, that’s just how it was written. The main character can’t let go of things for several chapters, nothing is resolved, and then the topic is abruptly never mentioned again. It’s confusing, missing parts, and unbelievable. It had good intentions and failed to accomplish them. I was disappointed with this book.