Brush of Shade by Jan Harman

YA Paranormal Romance

Brush of Shade has all the elements of a great paranormal romance. Olivia moves to Spring Valley after losing her parents in a car accident.  She soon realizes that something isn't quite right about this idyllic town. There are spooky events that keep happening, and worse yet, Olivia has been hearing voices since the night of the accident. She keeps thinking that someone's following her. She's convinced that she's going crazy, but the truth is much more horrifying ...

Don't feel too sorry about Olivia. Most of the young male population of Spring Valley are gorgeous, including a classmate and football star, and two twins, Shade and Shadow. Olivia is particularly taken with Shade, whose eyes are often described as chips of icebergs. Shade, not unlike Edward from Twilight, has the uncanny knack of knowing exactly when Olivia's in trouble and in need of saving.

I wanted to know a lot more about Olivia. She's caught up in the mystery of Spring Valley, and devastated by the death of all her immediate family members. Other than that, I knew next to nothing about her. Not to pull in more Twilight references, but she seemed a bit Bella-ish, and Bella's helplessness was the whole reason I had trouble with that series. 

Unfortunately, I felt that the writing style got in the way of a great story. A lot of the dialogue seemed stilted, as if characters were reciting speeches instead of really talking to each other. Some of the action sequences were also confusing. I couldn't quite picture what has happening. Sometimes I had to read a sentence multiple times to understand what was going on. This definitely interfered with my reading enjoyment.