Envy, the series debut, involves the mysterious death of the twins’ old friend, Katelyn. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? Hayley and Taylor are determined to find out–and as they investigate, they stumble upon a dark truth that is far more disturbing than they ever could have imagined.
Based on the shocking true crime about cyber-bullying, Envy will take you to the edge–and push you right over.”
While I’m not reviewing the cover, I must say it’s STUNNING. It has a lovely creepy vibe that fits the book well. The colors are gorgeous. This is one of my favorite covers this year.
I have a confession to make, I rarely read the entire note or letter at the beginning of a book. I skim them and if something catchs my eye I will read it closer. Since my copy of Envy was an ARC it had a letter from the editor and a short note from the author in the beginning, for whatever reason, I read them both word for word.
The writing and story line kept me held in place wanting to know more, this book worked it’s magic on me – it’s simply addictive. The writing itself is a bit different than the average YA book. Gregg Olsen is a originally a crime author and this was his first foray into the young adult world. So it has the feel and writing style of a crime novel, yet in this case, it works wonderfully. The story line hits on a true crime that I had followed, because it horrified me when I first heard about it. I won’t tell you which crime specifically, because that would be a spoiler but it involves cyber-bullying. While it does focus a lot on the crime aspect, there is a bit of a paranormal twist that makes Envy fresh and unique.Envy opens with Katelyn, she is such a moving character for me. Mind you, she’s dies right away, so she’s not exactly an active character, but she is a very important one. As the story unfolds to tell the reader what happened to her, I felt more and more drawn to her.
Hayley and Taylor are twins and used to be friends with Katelyn. The paranormal twist I mentioned? They have a special power, this enables them to be able to investigate what they feel was a murder much easier than if they didn’t have one. They were interesting as main characters, and I was happy that despite their differences with Katelyn that they did investigate the crime.
It’s pretty obvious I loved this book! While it’s going to appeal more to crime or mystery lovers, it definitely has potential to entice readers of horror (or at least creepy ones) and paranormal books as well.
Envy goes on sale August 23rd. I received my copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review, this in no way affected my opinion.