Originally posted: litupmyworld.wordpress.com and recommended by Gina Rosati. Beautiful, original and suspenseful debut novel by Gina Rosati. Character Notes/Analysis: Annaliese Grace Rogan “Anna”, our protagonist has abilities to astral project (also known as, “out-of-body-experience”). I genuinely liked Anna because she’s naive but she’s not the annoying-kind-of naïve. Also, I love her ability to astral project because the concept is cool. I mean, she can go anywhere (soul wise) and much faster than the speed of light (not that either one of us knows exactly how fast that could get). I like Anna’s character because she’s simple but just like every other teenager-angst you meet in real-world or in the young adult atmosphere. I also adore her devotion to Rei, it’s genuine friendship! Something I’ve rarely seen in the real-world or even in the Young adult world! Rei Ellis, our male lead is the best friend of Anna. He’s half japanese and over-protective and oh-so-charming. He’s smart and not an over-achiever but his grades are above average. When Seth and Anna are just the average students, Rei takes AP (advance placement) classes which leads to them only have one subject together: Physical Eduction. I like Rei because he’s mixed (something new) and because he has this same undying love for Anna. Seth Murphy, best friend of Anna and Rei. He’s the pivotal character. He’s also mighty fine: wavy dark hair with blue eyes. Not to pull off a ‘Taylor’ but um… yum! (and by Taylor, I’m referring to one of the characters in this novel— actually the antagonist) Taylor Gleason, the antagonist. Taylor is not a direct antagonist, there just happened to have an event where she takes her feeling on full-overdrive and completely lose her senses and commit senseless actions which then eventually led to her downfall. Although, I did try, I’m at 50/50 at feeling bad for Taylor. Saya Ellis, Rei’s baby sister is probably my absolute favorite character because she’s super adorable with her baby attitude and her beautiful blue eyes (imagine that on a japanese mix!) I love how she refers to Anna’s eye color as ‘deep fried broccoli’ (something like that) and Rei’s eye color as ‘elephants poop’ or in general ‘poop’ — this kid will get you smiling, guaranteed. I believe her name is appropriate because there’s this Filipino word ‘saya’ and that means ‘joy’ or ‘happy’ and that’s what she is to the readers and to Rei and Anna. Yumi Ellis, (assuming she’s the Japanese one) is Rei’s mom and she plays a ‘natural’ up-tight mom when it comes to grades and future— which is nice to see parental guidance exist in the YA world. This novel appears to have everything that one may brand as “something new”. First of all the way Rosati incorporated the notion of ‘out of body experiences’ and made this oh so simple conflict which grew into this massive, destructive problem. Often authors struggle to make their conflict something so complex that it starts to become this lame conflict. Nope, not with Rosati! She begins the conflict with something as simple as “I lost my phone” Not kidding. The slope of conflict begins increasing here. Rosati’s Ingredients for her novel: -awesomeness -Rei, perfect charming boy, Rei -beautiful pacing for story to gradually become more and more complicated -romance -the unique plot -near the end, as the story reaches its climax and you’re left wanting to read more and more of the novel because you’re just left there thinking, “WHAT! WHAT’S HAPPENING” -seat-gripping, nail-bitting mystery/suspense Then this is your perfect read! Until then, happy reading everybody! Love lots, Michelle

Auracle ended up being one of my most surprising reads of the year, at least thus far. I didn't have much of an idea of what to expect at all, besides a fairly typical paranormal YA. I think it was because of this that I ended up being SO surprised by it and thoroughly enjoyed Auracle. There are very few things in Auracle that I would consider typical - so it's a great choice for those readers looking for osmething a little bit unique and different in their paranormal reads. Reasons to Read: 1.Childhood friends grow up: I get a little bit tired of the new "mystery boy/girl" appearance, and a story about two childhood best friends as they grow up doesn't seem to be as common anymore. But it still holds a special place in my heart. I love it because we really get to see and understand WHY Anna and Rei care about each other so much - and so it makes sense when they're both willing to risk so much to help each other out. 2.An interesting premise: I really wasn't familiar with the concept of astral projection before reading Auracle, but I have to admit that it was a fascinating idea. And I loved that Auracle really explored some possible downsides to it, instead of making it seem simply great and amazing. Plus, this defintely made it a different sort of paranormal read and I loved reading about different ideas. 3.A backwards sort of mystery: There's a certain mystery element to the plot, but the difference is that Anna (and the reader) already knows exactly what happened - the difficult is proving that without the knowledge that Anna can astrally project herself. So there's a backwards sort of approach to picking up the pieces and trying to work things out. But it definitely made things interesting, in their own way. The one thing I really didn't love about Auracle was Taylor - she just seemed so nasty and mean for no apparent reason. I just didn't feel that there was enough development given to her, so Taylor ended up feeling rather one dimensional to me and wasn't the most effective villain because of this. I have to add though that I really did love Rei! He was just so sweet and thoughtful, and I loved seeing the way Anna began to realize that things were changing between the two of them. He's one YA guy to watch out for - different from the norm, but a keeper for sure! 3 E-galley received from publisher for my honest review; no other compensation was received.

I can honestly say I’ve never read a book about someone who can astrally project. It was an interesting premise and one that sucked me in right away. I think it is safe to say, that regardless of all the problems Anna encounters during Auracle I am still completely jealous of her gift. I’d love to be able to astrally project anywhere in the universe at any time. Can you imagine how amazing that would be? If you can’t Gina Rosati provides some amazing examples in Auracle – like flying through the stars, seeing your favourite band play on the other side of the world, and impromptu vacations in exotic locations. And best of all sunrise tours! That is my new life dream. I wish there had been a little more exploration of astral projection, but I understand there was a story to get to. Anna is one interesting main character. Sometimes she’s brave and intelligent and takes action but other times she’s afraid and a bit whiny. I suppose, in some ways, this is just human nature but I would have liked to see her take control a bit more, rather than rely on Rei so much. That being said, she does have a lot of great independent and creative ideas, which make her the true hero of this story. Speaking of Rei – I know I’m supposed to really like him, and he is a great guy but sometimes he is so protective of Anna that I begin to feel suffocated. I’m not sure how she can stand it. He’s a good guy and he’s just trying to look out for her (excellent qualities in a best friend) but checking to see if she’s brushed her teeth or eaten enough fruit? That may be borderline obsessive. One thing that really surprised me was Auracle wasn’t as serious as I thought it would be. There’s a lot of serious stuff going on but it is actually quite a light read. And that works for Auracle. Instead of constantly trying to keep up with the tension and the drama, you can just lean back and enjoy the story. Final recommendation: A nice light read with some unique ideas. Perfect for paranormal fans and those looking for a book to throw in their beach bag. This and other reviews at Hooked on Books (http://christashookedonbooks.blogspot.com)

I loved the cover of this book when I first saw it, but now that I've read the book, I totally get it and love it a thousand times more. This is a great page-turning read that has a surprising amount of humor in its very fast-paced and compelling story. It is very much a paranormal, but something a little different than what I'm used to from the genre, which made it a very refreshing read about a girl who can astrally project and her best friend who try to fix the bad situation they find themselves in (I don't want to give anything away by talking about the plot too much). It was also very sexy without being graphic and I loved Rei and Anna together, even when they were so far apart physically for most of the book. Looking forward to more from Gina Rosati!

I loved the cover of this book when I first saw it, but now that I've read the book, I totally get it and love it a thousand times more. This is a great page-turning read that has a surprising amount of humor in its very fast-paced and compelling story. It is very much a paranormal, but something a little different than what I'm used to from the genre, which made it a very refreshing read about a girl who can astrally project and her best friend who try to fix the bad situation they find themselves in (I don't want to give anything away by talking about the plot too much). It was also very sexy without being graphic and I loved Rei and Anna together, even when they were so far apart physically for most of the book. Looking forward to more from Gina Rosati!