Review: Finding Sky by Joss Stirling

I've been cleaning non-stop the whole weekend so I was MIA. I did finish Hunted by The Others by Jess Haines though and will post the review today or tomorrow. Here is an older review, I had posted on Goodreads! :)

Finding Sky By Joss Stirling
Reading Level: YA/Paranormal

Summary:
Sky is your regular every day girl NOT. When she was little she was abandoned by the one who had her and she was made to believe she was evil, a nuisance and unworthy of love. Her whole childhood is mysterious as she doesn't remember anything.
The English, artistic couple that adopted her, though quirky, loved her and gradually made her come out of her shell.
She is plagued by nightmares still, but after moving to a new place in US and making new friends, she thinks things will go better.
Then she sees Zed, a fellow classmate, sexy and mysterious who seems to dislike her as much as she dislikes him. Never mind that he is gorgeous, Sky keeps her calm, till she finds out that the two of them are connected in a way neither of them had imagined. They both have supernatural powers.
Apparently, people with supernatural abilities like telepathy, telekinesis etc, are called Savants and for each of them there's only one person in the whole world they should spend their life with, otherwise they will wither away and die.Sky is Jed's soulfinder.
But finding your soulmate doesn't come without its costs and dangers and Sky is about to find out...

Review:
I finished this book last month. It might have taken me 3 days, but that was mostly due to prior engagements I couldn't get out of.
I caught a special edition of this book at play.com, with an extra poster, which was lovely and I do think the cover is really nice. That is what drew me to it, initially.
When I started reading it, I didn't know exactly what to expect, but it didn't disappoint.

As a non-native English speaker, I always rejoice at the opportunity to read a book that is written in "decorative language", with lots of descriptions and adjectives etc, but this book was written in a simple way.
Yet, it didn't make it any less enjoyable.

Actually, I found myself smiling and grinning every other page mostly.
It was THAT fun. Sky is so familiar. It could be you or me. That's how normal she seems.

I liked the situations Sky got herself into and how real her reactions and her peers' reactions were to everything. She felt really normal...
But she wasn't..exactly normal.

Sky is a girl who has no memory of her past. She just knows it wasn't pleasant and that whoever had her, left her because she was bad and undeserving of love.
She also had a unique ability, gift if you may, to be able to sense and see the true feelings of everyone around her. Their auras as she said.

Each emotion has a different color and no one can hide.
This ability gave her a compass, which she used in order to keep herself safe.

She was adopted by Sally and Simon, an English couple of artists who were kind and patient enough to take her in, when she barely spoke.
It took her a lot of time to come out of her shell, but she did.

When they moved to Colorado, Sky didn't know what to anticipate, but she made friends easily, Tina and Nelson, mostly.
Then, there was this dark, broody boy with a relatively ambiguous reputation.
The bad boy. Zed.

Every girl lusts after him, and Sky finds herself fascinated, but he is too mysterious and dangerous for her taste, so she tries to dismiss it.

I actually liked that about her. I mean it was a completely natural reaction.
I liked the fact that she kept her cool and even though she wanted him, she didn't like him. I loved that distinction and I loved that she was straight with him, as well.

It's only during a soccer game that the secret is revealed.

Zed is a Savant and tries to help her telepathically in a situation, without knowing that Sky is a telepath too and could hear him. Actually, not even Sky knew it!
It appears that Savants are people with several abilities, like telekinesis, or pyrokinesis , or healing...

But after that, Zed tells her she is his "Soulfinder" - his absolute soulmate for eternity- and he knew that because: "When a Soulfinder speaks telepathically to her partner, it's like all the lights coming on in a building. And he told her: {when you talked to me}You lit me up like Vegas".
Sky is unconvinced and gives him a hard time, because predetermination isn't something she likes, but, gradually, she comes to realize that they do share a deeper connection that cannot be explained. They really are soulmates.

Throw in a family of evil Savants wanting to take revenge against the Benedicts (Zed's family of 9) for solving crimes for the Police, brainwash etc and you have a very exciting novel.We also do find out some things about Sky's past, but it is pretty unclear so we need a sequel!!!

I'm eagerly waiting for the next one! :)
Please let there be a next one! :P

Verdict:
A very fun, definitely YA (it is too light for anything else)novel with believable characters and good plot. Even though it wasn't that exciting and a page-turner, you still wanted to know what would happen next.
I think everyone who likes light-hearted paranormal novels will enjoy this.
Mature readers of "heavier", more serious stuff will probably not find it very satisfying.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Entertaining and will still grab the sequel if there's one) XD

Find Joss Stirling: Site // Goodreads

Buy Finding Sky at: Amazon // BookDepository // Play.Com

- Kelly