Life isn’t fair…and neither is death.When seventeen-year-old Nebraskan, Rachel Sutton moves into her new home in Maine, she quickly discovers it is the former residence of Noah and Ethan Thompson, teenage brothers recently killed in car crash. Brothers who have yet to move on. Ethan, spiteful and jealous, is obsessed with Rachel, and Noah, guilt-ridden and gorgeous, is trying to save his … to save his brother’s soul. As Rachel spends countless hours with Noah, and dates Parker Redding, a popular football player, she finds herself torn between her feelings for the living and the dead.
One fateful night, Rachel must choose. Will she embrace her life on earth with those who love her? Or find out what’s on the other side?
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Two Ghosts and a Girl
I enjoyed this book, it has a good story and a good message though some bad things happen. It seems to me in the beginning that the writing was a bit stilted, kind of like someone reading lines that were written for them instead of speaking naturally, but it could just be me and the fact that I took a while to really get in to the story.
Though once the protagonist, Rachel starts to suspect ghosts are in her new house and then finds out two brothers died not long ago. I started to get immersed in the story. Rachel finds out that the brothers, Noah and Ethan lived in the house before her and attended the same school as her and it isn’t long before she meets them both.
I was a bit frustrated because I don’t completely understand how the ghost thing works. Spirits can stay earthbound instead of crossing over if they have something they need or want to do, like looking after children if they don’t trust their spouse, or staying around until their loved one passes away so they can cross over together.
Ethan and Noah can talk to Rachel, can be invisible and they can project, and when they project, they are solid enough to touch her or hold her. Though some of the things that happened left me wondering wtf. For example when Rachel asks Noah why their parents moved, since she is now living in their old house.
“Mom could sense Ethan and me in the house and she kept trying to talk to us. We didn’t project ourselves or speak to her, but she knew we were around. Dad worried she was losing it and thought moving to a new house might help. We stayed here since it’s the only home we’ve ever known, and the place was empty until your family moved in.”
Rachel’s next question is whether he visits his parents in their new condo across town. My question would be “Why didn’t you talk to your Mom or project yourselves to her.” I mean she was trying to talk to them. If it was me and I died young in a sudden manner, I would talk to my Mom to say goodbye. I would let her know that I would cross over soon to a better place. Then she could get some closure without expecting me to stay with her forever. But Rachel never asks the question.
Rachel is dating Noah’s friend Parker and Noah is watching over her, so he goes where she goes. One night Parker has a pool party with a bunch of friends who used to be Noah’s friends and Rachel feels bad that Noah is waiting outside while she is having fun. I don’t understand why Noah wouldn’t just show himself and have fun with them as long as he is there for a while.
Noah could set their expectations so they don’t grieve again when he goes but they can enjoy having him around for a little longer. So are there rules about not showing themselves to living people? Or does Rachel have the sixth sense an only she can see them? I kept wondering these things as I read.
Another thing really started to bother me, it was how Rachel was having feelings for Noah and Parker. Every time she was with Parker, she would start thinking about Noah, then start to feel guilty about it since Parker was alive and her boyfriend. I understand how someone in her situation would feel that way, I just got sick of reading about her feeling guilty over and over. Also when Rachel was with Parker, the phrase “she inhaled his crisp, clean scent” was repeated three or four times.
The premise for the story was great and I liked the way it flowed. Rachel was a likable heroine aside from the guilt and reusing the same phrases. She was strong and happy and a dancer. She made friends right away and wasn’t too freaked out by the supernatural events. The issues between the brothers were a good story and how they each treated and interacted with Rachel was interesting and kept my attention.
I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to the publisher and BookSirens for providing me with a copy of this novel for an honest review. It has been published in July 2019.
“This Side of Tomorrow” by Sally White is a YA paranormal novel that starts off as a perfectly chilling revisitation of the trope of the haunted house… and then ends up losing its momentum long before the story is actually finished.
In the end, it becomes just another stereotypical paranormal romance focusing on a love triangle that doesn’t make much sense.
At the beginning of the book, I was delighted by the protagonist’s characterization, the originality of the premise, the freshness of the writing style… I thought I had stumbled on the debut novel of my next favourite author.
I particularly liked how the story didn’t waste any time beating around the bush: the main plotline starts almost immediately, with Ethan in his invisible form assaulting Rachel in her own bedroom on her very first night in her new house. What could be more terrifying than that?
Anyway, not much else happens in the whole book, and – although Ethan’s menace never diminishes – the story couldn’t keep me entertained in the end.
Basically, the mean dead brother stalks the protagonist, while the nice dead brother and a few spirit friends of his try and save Rachel by… talking to Ethan and convincing him to become good? How lame is that? Their strategy for keeping Rachel safe from her dead wannabe rapist who can literally walk through walls is… talking to him??? You can imagine how effective that’s going to be.
Rachel herself is remarkably passive throughout the whole story, incapable of defending herself and apparently not much bothered by that: she seems perfectly content to delegate her own safety – and that of her loved ones – to a bunch of ghosts she barely knows, who have proven themselves ineffective time and time again and who never come up with a better strategy than the one they’ve been unsuccessfully using all along.
I was also a bit annoyed that the issue of ghost corporeity is never properly addressed in the novel: Noah and Ethan can make themselves invisible or project an image of their choice, they can be seen by Rachel but not by anyone else, they can walk through walls and closed doors, but they can also move objects, pet cats, touch living people… I know this is a paranormal novel and I’m ready to accept that different rules apply than in real life, but there has to be some consistency in the story. Reading this I just felt that the rules kept changing – or were never clear enough in the first place, allowing for a ridiculous amount of leeway – according to whatever the narration required in every given chapter. For instance, if ghosts can make themselves incorporeal at will, how can Noah drag Ethan off of Rachel or hold him while she gets away? How can Noah and Ethan beat each other up? Shouldn’t Ethan be able to slip out of Noah’s grasp just by making himself temporarily incorporeal? Shouldn’t they both be able to dodge punches the same way?
I’m not even going to comment on the ending, because it’s so silly.
Overall, I think this story had potential but didn’t deliver half as much as the first few chapters promised.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Rachel and her family has just moved into Blueport and already she discovers two ghost boys in their new house. When a life is posed with a threat, Rachel finds herself protected by a ghost boy who tugs at her heart. But she has living boyfriend who cares a lot about her. As time flies and the danger increases, Rachel is not so sure what her heart wants.
This Side of Tomorrow was a delicious combo of spooky and romantic. I enjoyed how easy it was for me to get to know the characters and connect with them.
The romance was not overdone and balanced perfectly with the spookiness and this, I feel, was the highlight of the book for me.
Both romance and ghost story lovers will enjoy this one as much as I did.
I received an advance reader copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Heyo! Okay this book was amazing. Completely and utterly. I’m speechless. This has got to be one of the best ARCs I have ever read and that is saying something. I don’t know if this author has written other books or if this was her first, but it was brilliant. I could probably rant about this book for days. I am completely obsessed.
Rachel moves to a new state with her mom and stepdad hoping to start a dance studio. The only thing she is worried about is her mom not getting sick. Then, she meets Ethan, and more importantly Noah. Now she has to fear for her and every one around hers life while also falling in love with boys, one of which she could never have on this side of tomorrow.
Character Development: 5 stars
Story Line: 4.5 stars.
Readability: 5 stars.
Writing style: 4.5 stars.
My enjoyment: 5 stars.
Average Star Score: 4.8 stars.
Things I Liked
– Rach was so freaking sweet and rarely was selfish
-Parker was my dream boy.
– If given the choice to date either Parker or Noah, I would pick Noah, everytime.
– The story line was so smooth
-I love the action within the romance
– The book felt like one that I would have bought at a store from a big name author.
Things I Did Not Like
– I have one complaint, Parker seemed a little too willing to believe. other than that PERFECTION.
I am in love with this book. I am usually not the biggest fan of ghosts and stuff like that, but this was literally amazing. Thank You BookSirens for recommending this book to me and to Sally White for posting this book and giving me the opportunity to read and enjoy it.
Without giving spoilers let me just say this book is….a page turner, sad, sweet, a great read and makes you feel good. It hits home on so many levels.
I received a copy of this book for a honest review
This review is also available on my blog: Wine Cellar Library
First, I would like to thank Book Sirens and Sally White for providing me with a Kindle copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I was grabbed initially by the beautiful cover art on this book. This is my first book from Book Sirens, and I am incredibly impressed. The premise of the novel is very reminiscent of Twilight and Fallen, but with ghosts instead of vampires or fallen angels. In fact, I feel that this is written much better than the first books in either of those series. I would highly recommend this book to fans of either.
I don’t know what it is, but I’m a sucker for books where the main character is torn between loving two different people. Rachel has a perfect boyfriend named Parker, but she is also in love with Parker’s friend Noah, even though Noah died in a car accident before she ever met him. (Maybe it’s just me, but I am definitely #teamnoah, no matter how inconceivable that relationship might be.)
Noah has taken it upon himself to protect Rachel from his younger brother Ethan, who also died in the wreck. Ethan is violent and obsessive and will hurt anyone who stands in the way of him getting what he wants: Rachel, all to himself.
There were a couple scenes that did not quite make sense with the narrative, such as Rachel meeting with a medium and being scared about what might happen, even though she can see and speak to spirits on her own. Otherwise, I truly enjoyed every minute and I really hope there may be a sequel in the future. Bravo, Sally White!
I received this advanced readers copy from BookSirens in exchange for my honest review.
The Other Side of Tomorrow has tons of potential. I really enjoyed the paranormal aspect of the book, it made it a good YA read for my October list. The emotions run high throughout, and the characters made me feel. Buuut, in some ways the story just fell flat.. I picked it up and struggled getting into it a few times because of one thing: the ‘new girl at school’ trope. It’s overused and killed my interest right at the beginning of the book, but I’m really glad I stuck it out. I guess I read too much YA, or at 23 I’m getting too old, or perhaps we need a better way to have the trope be not so obvious and in your face. Well, whatever. It was a decent read in the end!
3.5 stars to the author!