And it’s a lot harder to do successfully than Roethle makes it look, when the story skips along at such a rate, while ensuring readers know exactly how everyone is feeling and what they are doing. Which means that in addition to finding Xoe appealing, we need to be convinced about her friends and their relationship dynamic within the group. So when events start sliding out of control, there’s no thought of this little group coping alone – one of Xoe’s main characteristics is her strong loyalty and sense of protectiveness towards her friends. However, this story isn’t about some isolated loner mooching around looking exotically different… Xoe has several close buddies and like many teens of her age, wants to hang out with them. Roethle’s lively style sets a cracking pace that doesn’t hang around, as the story then gains extra momentum once everything lurches into the paranormal spectrum. I was perfectly willing to suspend my belief regarding that change and go with the flow.

But the first slice of the book effectively establishes Xoe and her friends’ daily lives – until it all changes. Roethle manages to exactly capture the teen voice, with perhaps a slightly less self-absorbed spin on events. In fact, her daily routine is very familiar – right down to the long-suffering tone Xoe adopts when discussing her classes. This isn’t some angst-ridden cry from the heart set in amongst an uncaring dystopian world. The chirpy tone of the blurb accurately reflects Xoe’s attitude. Xoe doesn’t trust him as far as she can throw him, and given that he’s a vampire, she’d have to be able to catch him first. Before Xoe can say, “Werewolf,” her best friend’s life is in peril, and Xoe’s world is turned upside-down. Things were about to change though, because there’s a new guy in her small town, and he is anything but normal. So she was stuck going to high school, and she only had a few friends to call her own. So I downloaded and read the first book in her YA fantasy series.

Sara is a smart, funny writer I’ve met through my blog.

Xoe by sara c roethle