Early Review: When by Victoria Laurie

When by Victoria Laurie 
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: January 13, 2014
Book Format: e-ARC
# of Pages: 336
Synopsis: Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?

Meet The Author: (Taken From Goodreads)

 Victoria Laurie is the New York Times bestselling author of 26 books and counting. Victoria divides her time between her two adult mystery series, (The Psychic Eye Mysteries, and The Ghost Hunter Mysteries), and a Y/A thriller, When (Formerly titled Death Date), to be released in early January of 2015.

As a professional psychic, Victoria's protagonists - psychic Abigail Cooper, and spiritual medium M. J. Holliday - tackle the tricky world of the paranormal while fighting bad guys and demons with plenty of plucky humor and determination.

And using that keen understanding of the paranormal, Victoria also created the character of Maddie Fynn, a teenager with the unique intuitive ability to predict the exact date of someone's death.

To showcase her writing range, Victoria has also penned a children's epic adventure series, The Oracles of Delphi Keep.


My Review:
I received When by Victoria Laurie from the publisher and this is my honest review.

By the time this book was downloaded to my kindle app I had completely forgotten what the concept of the story was. So, after reading the first chapter or two I was pleasantly surprised.
In the beginning we meet the main character Maddie who has a very special ability, and that is she can see a persons death date by simply looking at their forehead. The concept of this novel, is so refreshing compared to all the other overused YA subjects like vampires, werewolves, etc. A young teenager being able to read anyone and everyones death date is an interesting concept, and could make for a very well written story which Laurie has proved.

Maddie has had this ability ever since she could remember, and has used it to help people since the death of her father when she was younger. She felt that if she had warned her father of his date he would still be alive and well today. In the book, Maddie is living alone with her alcoholic mother doing anything she can to bring in money. For example she started a small business to read individuals death dates for them. But when one client comes in, everything goes very wrong.

I found myself not being able to stop reading this book from the minute I started it until the very last page. There were so many lovable thing incorporated into the book. For instance, Stubby had to be by far my favorite character. He was such an innocent kid, that every time something bad happened it upset me greatly. I felt for both Maddie and Stubby and was rooting for everything to end in their favor.

Another really lovable character by far was Mrs. Duncan, from the very beginning of the story all the way until the end she made sure that especially Maddie, her mother, and sometimes uncle Donny were well taken care of. Everything this sweet old lady did was amazing and I loved every time she had a part in the story.

Laurie did an amazing job ending the book. I was so into figuring out who was committing all the murders throughout the whole book. But let me just say I had no clue who it possibly could have been. I had a few hunches but I never suspected the person that it ended up being, when Maddie walked into her house and was attacked I almost yelled PLOT TWIST! I was so surprised.

In the end I am very glad I had the opportunity to read this book, I loved all the characters they all had huge parts and made the story interesting and fun to read. Maddie was a young but very strong girl dealing with a lot and I was rooting for her and her family to pull through the whole time. I am very satisfied with the ending.