Ashes To Ashes by Melissa Walker

Ashes To Ashes by Melissa Walker

Release Date: December 23, 2013

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 356

Summary: If I Stay meets the movie Ghost in this first book in a teen duology about a teenage-girl-turned-ghost who must cling to the echoes of her former life to save the people she left behind.

Ashes to Ashes is author Melissa Walker's sweeping, romantic, and emotionally rich story about the things that torment and tempt us, even from the Great Beyond. This book is perfect for fans of Die for Me and Imaginary Girls, and its breathtaking ending will leave readers anxiously awaiting the series conclusion, Dust to Dust.

When Callie's life is cut short by a tragic accident, she expects to find nothingness, or maybe some version of heaven.

Instead, her spirit travels to the Prism, an ethereal plane populated by the ghosts she thought were fictional. Here she meets a striking and mysterious ghost named Thatcher, who is meant to guide her as she learns to haunt and bring peace to the loved ones she left behind.

However, Callie uncovers a dark secret about the spirit world: The angry souls who always populate ghost stories are real, dangerous, and willing to do whatever it takes to stay on Earth, threatening the existence of everyone she ever cared about.

As she fights to save them, Callie will learn that while it may no longer beat, her heart can still love-and break.

My Thoughts: If I could give this one more than five cupcakes, I so would! I loved this!

We are introduced to Callie who has an amazing dad, an amazing boyfriend, and a super cool best friend! Her life is pretty good. Yes, her mom passed away years ago but overall she is happy.

But that all changes one day, while she’s on the way to see her boyfriend. Her dad has just bought her a new car and she really enjoys having it. She picks up the phone as she’s driving, talks to her boyfriend, and gets in a car wreck. This is so horrible!

She’s instantly thrown into this place known as the Prism. In this mysterious place, she meets a boy named Thatcher. Oh how I loved him!

Thatcher is to be her guide and help her help her loved ones move on. They must get past her death so she can move onto what's next; a sort of heaven. Thatcher has to help her give each of them peace and let them accept her death and move on with their lives. But of course things can’t be this easy. Callie meets a few friends along the way who haven’t moved on and don’t want too. Callie finds out there is a lot more to their story than she knows and they are connected to Thatcher as well.

I don’t even know what to say about this one. I loved it. I read it in one sitting. I don’t want to give everything away but Thatcher has a lot of secrets and so does Callie’s boyfriend on earth. He has his own secrets and a huge one he was planning on doing the night Callie died.

Callie gets to visit both her best friend and boyfriend and she gets to see what they are going through and how they are handling her death. She wants to communicate with them so much. I also liked seeing her go back to places she enjoyed. I liked seeing her interact with Thatcher. Love him!

The ending left on a cliffhanger and I wanted to chuck the novel across the room. I want the next in the series right this minute. I wasn’t that surprised on how it ended but it still made me angry enough to want to scream and demand the next novel. HAHA.

Overall: Loved it! I loved Callie and Thatcher and the way things ended really made me tear up. I’m scared she’ll lose him forever. I’m scared of how things could play out in the next one. I’m nervous about it all. I really enjoyed the plot and the characters. This was definatly a novel for me. One of my favorites!  Make sure to pick it up!

Cover: Love it! I can see Callie looking like that! And I love how she’s just standing there and I love everything!! 

What I'd Give It: