Intangible

Author: J. Meyers

Genre: fantasy, paranormal

Pages: 264

Published: 2012

Publisher: Self Published

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Source:  Received for review from author.

"Twins Sera and Luke Raine have a well-kept secret—she heals with a touch of her hand, he sees the future. All their lives they’ve helped those in need on the sly. They’ve always thought of their abilities as being a gift.
Then Luke has a vision that Sera is killed. That gift they’ve always cherished begins to feel an awful lot like a curse. Because the thing about Luke’s ability? He’s always right. And he can’t do anything about it."

I have read several books about healers or seers and have thoroughly enjoyed them, but this was by far my favorite.  Meyers creates a world that looks just like ours.  Everyone seems normal, except the Raine twins.  But, as the twins soon find out, their world is anything but ordinary.  It is inhabited not only by seers and healers, but by elves, goblins and vampires!  Sera and Luke find themselves caught up in this world while still, for the most part, being unaware of its existence.  No one is what they appear to be, and after depending upon each other their whole lives, the siblings may now have to face the Realm alone.  The story includes a cast of memorable and well-drawn characters from Sera and Luke's protective best friend, the beautiful Fey, and the dark and mysterious Jonas to the handsome and troubled psychic, Marc.  This book is a very approachable and real fantasy.

As usual, let me start with the things I absolutely loved about this book.  First of all, the pace was magnificent.  I think this was aided by the different story tellers.  Each chapter, and sometimes within a chapter, the story teller changes.  This helps with two things:  it speeds up the story and it allows the reader to get to know each of the main characters intimately.  By the end of the book I understood each character's motivations behind their actions, even if the other players did not.  I really connected with all of them.  They are each struggling in their own way with right and wrong and it is impressive to see how Meyers tackles that issue with each individual character.  You can tell she really cares about her creations.  Second, the villain!  Oh my gosh, Lilith was so scary.  She has two forms: intoxicatingly beautiful and frighteningly repulsive and one is scarier than the next.  She is pure evil and delights in the suffering of others.  She even keeps humans in cages as pets that she can torture for fun *shudder*.  At the same time she is very snarky and can be quite amusing.  Having such a diverse and intriguing bad guy was a lot of fun. The third reason I loved this book was because it wasn't what I expected.  It is not just your typical fantasy story, and definitely not a normal vampire novel.  It has some real depth and doesn't focus on the supernatural aspect as much as relationships, trust and loyalty.  

There is really very little I can say about improving this story except that I really want to know more about the Realm, and the more minor characters introduced toward the end (I'm sure Sera and Luke do too!).  I'm sure we will learn more in the sequel (please?).   The only real disappointment I had was in one of the characters, I won't say whom, and their decisions at the end of the book.  I feel like I put a lot of hope into this person and they let me down, but then again, I suppose that was the point.  Sigh.

Overall, this was a fabulous read, and I would definitely recommend it.  It was good freaky fun!  It looks like there will be a sequel and I will certainly be picking that up.  I can't wait to find out what's next for the Raine twins and their paranormal entourage.