Hollowed by Kelley York Review

Hollowed by Kelley York
(Half Light, #1)
Release Date: August 15, 2012
Publisher: Kelley York; 235 pages

All 18-year-old Briar Greyson wanted was to figure out this whole living-away-from-your-parents thing. Apartment, steady job, cool roommate? Check. Noah, her adorable (albeit elusive) boyfriend? Check. Everything in the life of Briar was pretty good.

Then she and her roommate are attacked on their way home one night. Briar wasn't supposed to survive.

Instead, according to the two guys who saved her, she's turning into the things that attacked her: a vampire. Totally crazy and Not Okay. Now Noah's secrets are coming to light, and he wants Briar dead. Then there are the vampires who attacked Briar to lure out her sister.

Her sister...who died years ago.

(Didn't she?)

The city's body count is rising, and Briar wants to help put a stop to it. But first, she has to figure out who the real enemy is: the vampires, the boy she loves, or the sister she thought she'd lost.

Oh my gosh! This book absolutely blew me away. I really didn't know what to expect going in to this because I don't like really reading the summaries of books, weird, I know? But it was a pleasant surprise and it was done so great. Vampires, shape-shifters, witches, were-creatures (who I hope we'll meet in the next book?) and fae! A world in which I love, paranormal all the way! I fell in love with Kelley's first book, Hushed, and couldn't wait to read something else from her. Completely different but equally as great!

There's plenty of action to keep you excited, lots of family drama and drama in general but I especially like the family drama between Ruby and Briar (by the way, totally love these names!), oh and did I mention there is romance. Tension filled romance but romance nonetheless and I cannot wait to see how this relationship between Briar and her boyfriend, Noah plays out in the next book!

Briar is just a normal girl, wanting to live her life, love her boyfriend and enjoy her friendship with her best friend and roommate, Sherry. Unfortunately for her, normal is not what she becomes. She is attacked along with Sherry and she watches as the light leaves Sherry's eyes before fading into unconsciousness of her own. But she doesn't die...exactly...

Two strangers, Cole and Oliver, are there to help her recover and accept the change that is coming over her. It's hard to accept the fact that the life you once had is gone and in a sense, you are being reborn. Starting a new life, if you will. I absolutely LOVE Cole and Oliver. Cole is so calm and so just relaxed about everything but he's so incredibly inteligent. He is absolutely someone to look up to and take after, for sure, so I am glad he has taken claim to taking care of Briar. Oliver, on the other hand, I can't quite figure out. He's younger, he's got a bit of an attitude but he's got a huge heart that he doesn't flaunt to the world.

Then we have her boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend or...well, we're not really sure what's going on with them but all we know is he hates vampires. You can tell he's struggling when it comes to Briar, though. It's an internal struggle about what he's always believed in and what his heart is telling him.

I can't even tell you in words how much I enjoyed this book. All the characters were awesome, even the bad guys/girls. Guess what? These vampires don't sparkle either, so you know it's going to be good ;) But seriously, the story, the characters, the constant fighting makes this for one enjoyable read. One I really had trouble putting down! Highly recommended to any YA paranormal fan!