The Girl and the Raven: a YA Paranormal Romance by Pauline Gruber – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur.

The Girl and the Raven by Pauline Gruber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lucy Walker is your typical fifteen year old girl who lives with her mum, but that is where her normality ends, she lives in a trailer park and her mum is an addict, she spends the household budget on beer and drugs, albeit she says she is trying to get clean and Lucy dreads it when she goes to school or anywhere because of the looks and taunts she receives. One evening, she is trying to get on with her evening when she hears tyres screeching up the path between the trailers and her worst fears come to pass when she finds her mum dumped on their front lawn, not moving and not breathing, btu when she asks her neighbour to call for an ambulance, it is already too late. After things settle down, Lucy then travels to live with her Uncles in Chicago, but it is not the reunion she was expecting, it is under much more sad circumstances than she hoped for, but as they walk through the airport to collect her suitcase, she bumps into a stranger and feels a strange jolt when they do, she thinks no more about it until she finds a note in the book she dropped asking her to meet them with a contact phone number.

The next morning she meets the neighbour who lives on the floor above, he is a hot young man with dark hair and brooding eyes, Lucy has never seen anyone so handsome and she cannot believe her eyes, so she becomes tongue tied and embarasses herself when he comes past her at the door to the apartment block. To make matters even more awkward she has to go shopping with her Uncles for some new clothes and it isn’t what she is used to doing so she is finding it hard to accept it, but they won’t take no for an answer. It isn’t all bad though when she makes some friends thanks to the girl who lives over the road inviting her to spend time with her friend circle, it is something Lucy has always wanted, but never managed to have. A few days later and things have started to properly sink in when she goes upstairs to see a friend who lives two floors up, the things she finds out from her are shocking and feel unreal to her, it turns out that she is half witch and half demon and that her life is going to be anything but the normality she so desires because of it, but when she finds out that her grandmothers pet raven is missing, she is really upset and a little angry.

Things seem to go from bad to worse when she goes into her room to find out that it has been broken into, but everyone around her says they want to protect her, but they won’t tell her what is going on, but it means that she can spend more time with her hot neighbour. Will Lucy be able to accept all the new information which is being thrown at her while trying to keep it all a secret from her friends at school, or will the darkness which resides within her take over and put everyone she loves at risk? This is a fantastic paranormal adventure where growing up isn’t as simple as it seems and secrets abound within a community of both a supernatural and human nature, as you are pulled along on a coming of age journey like no other.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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