Cracked by Eliza Crewe

Cracked by Eliza Crewe
Published 2013, Strange Chemistry
Stars: ★★★★★

Guys, Dangerous Deception must have put me in a YA mood, because after reading it, I picked up this little gem.  It was just a rock when I picked it up, but then I Cracked it open (haha, bad pun!) and found it was a friggin' diamond inside!!

Eliza Crewe, though not free from some glaring grammar errors that some editors *should* have caught, rocked my world with this one.  It was JUST PLAIN FUN, but she also avoided SO MANY things I hate about YA -- there was no love triangle, there was no insta-love, the characters weren't all stereotypical, and they all actually followed the motives that their backstories and character types would actually have.  There was very little whining, it actually took ALL the main characters working together to save the day (no "I'm the only special butterfly snowflake, let me handle it all" moments), and the main character HAD A PERSONALITY that wasn't a cardboard cutout.

All in all, a solid first book by Eliza Crewe.  I can't wait to read book two.

...but, be warned... there's one very obviously coming moment that *is* a little predictable and is a twist that can be found in so many books, not just YA ( <spoiler>The death of Uri</spoiler> ) but I feel like that might not be the end of it, thanks to <spoiler>Meda's ability to see ghosts and him reappearing at the end</spoiler>. I was still upset though. LOL

That's enough rambling for now.  On to more books, and Crushed is coming up soon.