Book Review: Blood, She Read by Sara Hubbard

Blood, She Read
Author: Sara Hubbard
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy
Released: April 2013
Review Source: Author/Etopia Press
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) Keeping secrets from a psychic can be murder.

Petra Maras lives a charmed life, but only in the magical sense. Her absentee father is a criminal, her mother is emotionally dead, and everyone at her new school knows she comes from a family of witches. All she wants is to be normal, but that's impossible, given her family. And given that she's psychic. When the police request help with a murder investigation, Petra reluctantly agrees. Which isn't such a good idea since the prime suspect wants to date her, and she really wants to say yes. Her gut says he's innocent, but since she can't get a read on him, she can't know for sure. And when she discovers he's been keeping secrets, she wonders if maybe she's been following her heart instead of her head...

Blood, She Read is a murder mystery surrounded by a paranormal world and is set in Paradise, Nova Scotia. Petra Maras was born into a family of blood witches. But more than being a witch she also possesses the extra ability of being a psychic. She can touch an item belonging to any living person and see that objects memories. Henry Miller, a local police officer, brings Petra a bracelet with blood on it belonging to a case that has recently gone cold due to lack of viable leads. It's Henry Miller's hope that Petra will be able to read memories off the bracelet even though it's owner is deceased. Petra doesn't believe it will be possible but gives it a shot and is able to see that she was chased through the woods and eventually killed but couldn't see who her killer was.

Now her mother, Gina, whom Petra almost never refers to as "Mom" is upset with Petra for using her gift to help the police. Gina fears retribution from her father, also a blood witch, whom she has gone through great lengths to keep Petra safe from for years. She has to work hard to keep Petra off his radar so he won't come looking for her again to force her to use her gifts to question and help him kill his enemies.

In the middle of all of this, Petra is still a 17 year old girl who is attending the local high school where everyone has hated her family for at least a century for being known witches. Bad things always seem to happen when a family member is at her school. Gina is not above using her magic to get her daughter out of trouble from time to time. Following the unexpected visit from Henry Miller, Petra is confronted at school by Tommy and Finnigan (or Finn as she refers to him later). They are the two boys now on the police radar for the murder of the local girl. Finnigan had a relationship with the girl, but their relationship was never made public, making him the prime suspect in the case. It's not Finn who is upset with Petra though, it's his cousin, Tommy, who has hated witches like Petra all his life.

Meanwhile, Petra has never had a friend, she doesn't know what it's like to belong at school, but Dylan, a lanky, nerdy boy at school has recently taken an interest in her. Dylan gains Petra's trust even though she is weary of his intentions and his anger toward Tommy and Finnigan. Dylan was close friends with the deceased girl and is the one that told the police that Finnigan had been seeing the girl behind her parents backs. Dylan believes whole heartedly that Finnigan is to blame for her murder. But as the story unfolds, even though everyone has turned their backs on Finn at school, Petra becomes Finn's friend as well, much to Dylan's dismay. Petra now must try to gather as many facts as she can to not only find the girl's killer, but to prove Finn's innocence and silence her friends hatred once and for all.

This was a wonderful read. I finished it in a couple of days and enjoyed the characters and the story very much. I love mysteries and the fact that as the reader I didn't predict the outcome of the story before it even began was quite refreshing. I also enjoyed not knowing who the killer was even if the character didn't know; a lot of stories give you this information up front while the stories characters usually operate in the dark. I also love that Petra was not written as a naive 17 year old. She keeps her guard up and isn't overly trusting of anyone she knows, not even her own mother. She also doesn't hide information from her mother like most teenage female protagonists often are written to do. Now maybe that's because her mother is a witch and would know something was up with her daughter whether she told her or not, but I can't stand that most teenagers are written as being less than forthcoming with their elders. I thoroughly enjoyed Sara Hubbard's writing style and I am hoping that I will be able to read and review any works she comes up with in the future.