Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary:
It was a beautiful, warm summer day, the day Danny died.

Suddenly Wren was alone and shattered. In a heartbroken fury, armed with dark incantations and a secret power, Wren decides that what she wants--what she must do--is to bring Danny back.

But the Danny who returns is just a shell of the boy Wren fell in love with. His touch is icy; his skin, smooth and stiff as marble; his chest, cruelly silent when Wren rests her head against it.

Wren must keep Danny a secret, hiding him away, visiting him at night, while her life slowly unravels around her. Then Gabriel DeMarnes transfers to her school, and Wren realizes that somehow, inexplicably, he can sense the powers that lie within her--and that he knows what she has done. And now Gabriel wants to help make things right.

But Wren alone has to undo what she has wrought--even if it means breaking her heart all over again.

My Thoughts:
The premise of this book definitely has the creepy factor and going into it I knew it had the potential to be disturbing. Boy, was I wrong! I'm so glad I read it. From the first page, I was drawn in to this story. When Danny, the boy she loves with all her heart, dies in a terrible car accident, Wren is devastated and lost and ends up doing something that will change her to the core. See, Wren is different and she's always known that but not to what extent. She comes from a line of women who have "powers" but she's just learning the extent of that and what she can really do.

When she loses Danny, her first love, she performs a ritual that she hopes will bring him back from the dead. It works, much to her surprise, and what follows is such a beautiful story of heartbreak, longing, and love and the lengths that some will go to hold on to what they love most.

I was never creeped out by undead Danny, even though he's basically a walking corpse. It all gets to be too much for her, though, hiding Danny away from the world, especially when undead Danny starts remembering things. Eventually, Wren realizes she needs to right what she has done...this is a character that definitely matures through the course of the story. With help from the new guy at school, Gabriel (who also has some powers of his own) she's able to finally say goodbye to Danny and start to mend her broken heart.

Wren is such a real, fleshed-out character, it was easy to see why these two guys would fall for her. I loved all of the flashbacks to the time before the accident, little glimpses into this young relationship. I never once thought any of it was far-fetched. The ONLY thing that bothered me, and I mean literally only one thing, was not having the issue with her father resolved. Why didn't we find out where the father was and why he'd left? All in all, a beautiful, sad, and lovely book. If you're the emotional type, I'd recommend having a few tissues handy :)

Format: Kindle eARC provided by Netgalley

Amazon
B&N
Goodreads

View all my reviews