REVIEW: Happily Never After by Missy Fleming

Title: Happily Never After (Savannah Shadows #1)

Author: Missy Fleming

Publication Date: February 22^nd 2013

Publisher: Melange Books

Format: E-book

Pages: 180

Rating: 4/5
Blurb: There's no such thing as happy endings. Savannah, Georgia is rumored to be the most haunted place in America. Quinn Roberts knows it is. She's felt the presence of spirits her entire life, investigating and photographing them with her best friend. Only none of those encounters ever turned violent, until now. The menacing darkness feeding off her stepmother has promised she won't live to see her eighteenth birthday. After a chance meeting Quinn reluctantly allows actor Jason Preston into her life, which has complications of its own. She's not used to letting people get close. Falling for him while fighting for her life, and her family's legacy, only complicates things more. Jason shows her exactly what she stands to lose, especially when she's being attacked by the mysterious entity. Each attack is more violent and terrifying than the last.....

Review: ‘Happily Never After’ was supplied to A Book So Fathomless by the author, but this has not affected the opinions in the review below.

Going into this book, I knew very little of what to expect. Usually, I don’t really go for the ghostly sorts of books but I’ve been noticing recently that I’ve been getting into them a lot more than before- more importantly, I’ve been enjoying them. ‘Happily Never After’ was no exception.

From the first chapter- I liked Quinn, despite the fact that I have nothing in common with her, I still felt a connection to her. More importantly, I like how she grew as a character throughout the book- there was much more to her than you get to see at first which is awesome (I mean, who doesn’t like character development?). I also really like Jason and how he grew- he was absolutely nothing like I was expecting him to be and I really like the direction which Missy took him in. I liked the minor characters too- both the humans and the ghosts. I hope to see more of people like Anna, George and Jackson in the next book.

As for the plot, I liked how everything was written. I think the fact that Quinn isn’t quite your normal YA protagonist gave it a uniqueness which would have lost without her. I also really liked the Cinderella-ish tone to the book, especially with the little twist of the supernatural elements.  One of the biggest things that I found as a bit of a surprise in this book was the fact that it wasn’t really set in high school- there was a bit in the first few chapters but it quickly moved on to that time between school and college, as I’m about to reach this stage myself- I really enjoyed reading it about because it allowed me to connect even better to the story. More than that, I liked how the entire story didn’t revolve around romance- there was a lot of about family and history and those sorts of things that were really interesting to me.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about the setting- it’s set in Savannah, Georgia- which to be completely honest with you all, I know absolutely nothing about. That being said, I liked how the past and the present of the town was really important in the story. The only thing I didn’t understand completely was all of the American Civil War things- I’ve mentioned this in a couple of reviews of books set in the southern states, but again, I’m Australian, so I don’t really understand the importance of the War on all the different states.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed reading this one, especially as it was something a little different to what I’ve been reading recently. I would absolutely recommend ‘Happily Never After’ to all of you.

Also, as an end note. That ending, oh God...I need to know what happens next!