Review: Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

Cold Kiss (Cold Kiss #1)

by Amy Garvey

 Release Date: September 20, 2011

Publisher: HarperTeen

Paperback, 292 pages

When her boyfriend, Danny, is killed in a car accident, Wren can’t imagine living without him. Wild with grief, she uses the untamed powers she’s inherited to bring him back. But the Danny who returns is just a shell of the boy she once loved.

Wren has spent four months keeping Danny hidden, while her life slowly unravels around her. Then Gabriel DeMarnes transfers to her school and somehow, inexplicably, he can sense her secret. Wren finds herself drawn to Gabriel, who is so much more alive than the ghost of the boy she loved. But Wren can’t turn her back on Danny or the choice she made for him—and she realizes she must find a way to make things right, even if it means breaking her own heart.

Amy Garvey’s transcendent teen debut is perfect for fans of Shiver andBeautiful Creatures. Wren’s unforgettable voice and story will stay with readers long after the last page is turned. --Goodreads

4.5 Stars

Review

Do you know the five stages of grief? Well Cold Kiss is a novel about a girl who hit all of the stages of grief except the most important one, acceptance. Yes, I know it does sound sad and the novel was in fact, sad I cried a little during the book. What I liked most about this book was that it wasn't all sad; it was also funny, cute, and romantic (without being creepy- it wasn't like some guy was hitting on Wren right after her boyfriend died, no the relationship between Wren and Gabriel was appropriate and adorable.) 

So who is Gabriel? Gabriel is the (cute) new guy in Wren's small town, where everyone knows everyone since kindergarten, who right off the bat takes an interest in Wren. Wren is also attracted to Gabriel, but doesn't want herself to feel that way because she has Danny. Gabriel is not just any ordinary new kid; he has special magical powers. Gabriel can feel other people's feelings and read their minds, but he is not Wren's kind of special, which is "I can do magic like bringing my dead boyfriend back to life magic." When Gabriel finds out what Wren did, he becomes the only person Wren can talk to about Danny and the person she turns to for help. 

The book alternates between flashbacks of Wren and Danny and the present time with zombified Danny. The style of how Cold Kiss is written kind of reminds me of how the book If I Stay because they both alternate between present time and the past. I really like this concept because it gives the reader a stronger sense of the main character's loss, and in Wren's cause, gives the reader a more in dept reason of why she used magic to bring back an empty Danny. The flashbacks in Cold Kiss really showed the change in the Dannys. In the flashbacks, Danny is an outgoing guy who loves and always wants to make his girlfriend laugh, but also has other interests besides Wren. In the present time, Danny is not an outgoing guy (not his fault because Wren can't let him go outside, otherwise Danny would freak out people because he is suppose to be dead) who is extremely whiney, and needs Wren like people need air. 

Bottom line I LOVED this book and I will be reading the sequel to this book, Glass Heart, which is released September 18, 2012. I would definitely recommend this to people, especially to people who loved If I Stay by Gayle Forman( check out my review). The only little thing that bugged me about this book was that it kept saying how cold dead Danny was. I got that Danny is always cold the first fifteen times it was mentioned. Also there was one or two times it got a bit too descriptive for me, but it was only a page or two, then it picked up again. Those are the only reasons why it is a 4.5/5 instead of a 5/5 . Overall this book was AWESOME! 

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