Bridger

Bridger by Megan Curd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some background (very little to no spoilers):

Ashlyn is your average high school student living in Ohio. She has a crazy "bestie" friend and another great guy friend that loves her, although she does not reciprocate the feelings. Approaching Christmas, all was well, she was planning a trip to visit Ireland with her father...

And then the book starts with the death of her father. The callousness of the paramedics, and her grief cause her to do a seemingly impossible act - throwing the paramedic against the car like she was an action hero. This was just the tip of the iceberg for unusual things that seemed to begin happening... Her "Memaw", which had during her previous 16 years seemed to treat her with a cold distance, suddenly seems to be trying to reach out to her, to talk to her. Determined to make the most out of her trip to Ireland, she talks her mother into letting her go with her crazy "bestie" that Memaw does not seem to like at all...



Almost immediately upon arriving in Ireland, her "bestie" Jaime seems to have a polar shift in her attitude. Being surrounded by cousins and their friends, and meeting the handsome Liam starts to bring back some measure of warmth to her heart after loosing her father. Just when she thought things were turning around, meeting a cute boy that she actually feels attracted to, and seems to like her back, she overhears a conversation that leads her to believe she is just an inconvenience that must be babysat. So she and Jaime head off for some tourist sightseeing in Cork. Little did she know that all the fairy stories her grandmother told her growing up, and even Liam told her about his "stolen" little brother were true.....

This was a really good, refreshing YA novel. The characters are well written, and youthful without the whiny overtones that can turn me away from many YA books. There were innocent youthful romantic feelings, without any worry of a book filled with sex-crazed teenagers. There is still teenage drama, surprising more action that I expected, and Ashlyn turn out to be a much stronger and unique character compared to when the story begins. These faerie, changelings, and other creatures are not the happy-go-lucky, wish-granting, winged creatures that you may be familiar with from other stories. They are dark, and ruthless, and "other". While there does seem to be a dividing line between the "good" fae and "bad" fae... that lines proves to be many shades of grey- murky and ill-defined. Even the "good" guys are still not human, and don't think like human. Do not expect Tinkerbell when reading this.

I am really looking forward to the next book in the series. It really is a good story, although one of the few complaints I have is there were many "future" plot turns that you can see coming a mile away. It wasn't badly written, but there were fewer surprises than I was hoping for. For anyone that love fae stories, and doesn't mind YA, I would highly recommend this book. I was pleased that I was given an opportunity to read it, and will most definitely read Traitor when it comes out...

View all my reviews