Nyxen's Review of "13 To Life"

13 To Life by Shannon Delany
308 Pages
St. Martin's Griffin 2010

Everything about Jessie Gillmansen's life changed when her mother died. Now even her hometown of Junction is changing. Mysterious dark things are happening. All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But while showing a hot new guy around Juncction High, she's about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent- he's a guy with a dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to Jessie's small town. It seems change is the one thing Jessie can't avoid.

SEMI-SPOILER ALERT! READ AT OWN RISK

Thank god I bought this book instead of a different one. I was amazed after reading 13 To Life. There's something mysterious about this book that keeps you reading until the very end. I should know, I stayed up until 3am to read this book.
You know that Pietr and his family are werewolves but you don't find out right away. You actually learn about it at the end and I love how Shannon Delany just leads up to Jessie's discovery.

There's something about the way Delany writes that makes you want more. You want to read more of Jessie, more of Pietr, and more of their relationship. The way Delany writes is real. You feel the characters emorions as if they were your own.

This wasn't some werewolf love story- well, it was but still. There was so much more to it. The fact that Delany had included Russian culture to these werewolves seemed to make this book even better. I also adored the characters. The Rusakova's were my favorites by far. Cat and Max were so well rounded that it was easy to picture them as real human beings. Alexi was very mysterious. I honestly never though he would be behind anything. He just seemed like a regular father figure. As for Pietr, he is such a diverse character. You never knew what to expect from him and he simply adored Jessie. I just hated that Sarah got in the way of their 'relationship.'

That's another thing that shocked me. Sarah is a bitch. Excuse my language, but it's true! When I found out that she caused Jessie's mom to get in to that accident and that she was apart of the mean girls my jaw dropped. I never liked Sarah since the beginning. I think it was intuition that led me to dislike Sarah.

All in all, Delany has created a wonderful world filled with love, mystery, and culture. I got sucked in since the beginning and could not put a down for anything. This book just became one of my all time favorites and I cannot wait for her second novel in this series. I applaud you, Shannon Delany.

I rate this Five Stars.