Intertwined by Gena Showalter

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

There's something about the new guy at Crossroads High…

Most sixteen-year-olds have friends.

Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him:

One can time travel.

One can raise the dead.

One can possess another human.

One can tell the future.

Everyone thinks he's crazy, which is why he's spent his entire life shuffled between mental institutions and juvie. All of that is about to change, however. For months Aden has been having visions of a beautiful girl—a girl who carries centuries-old secrets. A girl who will either save him or destroy him.

Together they'll enter a dark world of intrigue and danger…but not everyone will come out alive.

Review:

Intertwined has been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time, and I really don't know why. I had heard amazing things about it, and one of my favorite imprints, Harlequin Teen, published it. So recently, I took the plunge and read it, and I was blown away. Intertwined is an amazing paranormal read to say the least. It shows that the paranormal genre can still be fresh and exciting, taking readers on yet another memorable ride!

Intertwined starts the story of Aden Stone, a boy whose been through hell and back in the past few years. Because not only has he been in and out of countless mental institutions as well as foster homes throughout the past few years, but he also has four souls living inside of him. Anything but ordinary, Aden has grown used to the consistent prodding of the souls, and they have even become one miss-matched family over time, but that does not stop the fact that they make his life a chaotic mess sometimes by talking and gabbing and never stopping. However, everything changes when Aden meets Mary Ann Gray, a girl who seems to have the world at her hands. She stops the voices, and Aden does not know why, but he needs to. This starts a journey like no other, one that will test Aden and Mary Ann in countless ways, engender new secrets, and bring a vampire princess and a werewolf to the mix.

There were so many great parts to this novel, and one of my absolute favorites would have to have been the premise and more importantly the execution of the said idea. The idea of having souls living inside a person was unique, and not only did it bring many interesting backstory to the novel, but it also brought a lot of fascinating turns and characters to the novel. Better yet Gena Showalter presented the idea in a way that constantly left me guessing and predicting my own ways of how everything would turn out.

I also adored the characters in Intertwined. Aden Gray was easy to root from the beginning because while he has had so many horrible things happen to him, it does not get him down. Instead, it makes him try harder to fix everything once and for all. I also loved the addition of the souls in his head, because surprisingly enough each one was well developed, and they even brought some laughs to the story as well. Aden’s friendship with Mary Ann was also complex, and best of all, I loved how it did not take the clichéd twist that I thought it would. Lastly, I loved the addition of the other supernatural beings as well, especially the werewolf.

Showalter’s writing was also marvelous. She did a fantastic job of making Intertwined a refreshing and memorable read, and best of all, she allowed this novel to have a solid ending even though it is the first in a series.

Thrilling and exhilarating, Intertwined is a fantastic start to a promising series, one I am sure many will come to adore as it continues.

Grade: A+

Intertwined is now out in paperback!

Source: Author- thanks Gena!