The Novel Strumpet Reviews My Lunatic Life by Sharon Sala! Teenagers! Angst! and Witches! Oh My!

I will admit that I love my teen angst with a body count… Yeah, that may have been a paraphrase from Heathers, but it’s well deserved! Lol… Today the Novel Strumpet has sent in this wonderful review of a new book titled My Lunatic Life by Sharon Sala.

In it, there is teen angst galore, witches, and romance… ahhhhhh just what every occult member of my high school would have loved! Did the Novel Strumpet give it her seal of approval?

Find out after the jump!

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My Lunatic Life by Sharon Sala:

I find it interesting that a lot of romance authors are starting to publish books for young adults. I wonder if they think teenagers would be more accepting of them trying to move into something different or if they just want to try the challenge of writing for another group. After all, romance readers are easy right? Put a sexy alpha male with bulging muscles and a sensitive heart in a story and we’re pretty happy. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….ok I’m only half kidding. Either way it seems to be a new trend, and I’m not complaining.

This first book of this new series introduces us to Tara Luna, a senior in high school who has moved (yet again) with her Uncle Pat to a new town in Oklahoma. She’s used to starting a new school since Uncle Pat is a bit of a roaming hippie, but Tara’s hoping this transition will be an easy one. It is her last year of high school. No such luck. Within the first few days she’s managed to catch the eye of the hottest bad boy in school, piss off a trio of cheerleaders, save a boy’s life, discover there may be a dead body in her backyard, gotten a possible psycho killer to stalk her and is now a suspect in the disappearance of one of the aforementioned cheerleaders. Oh, and she’s being called a witch.

Did I mention that Tara is psychic and her best friends, Henry and Millicent, are ghosts?

The Pros: Tara is likable and that is huge. Usually characters (especially teen characters) with these kinds of ‘gifts’ are full of angst and are very emo. But Tara seems like a pretty well adjusted girl, considering. Not rude, or self-absorbed, or carrying a big chip on her shoulder. It’s refreshing. The story is pretty fast paced (the eBook is only 95 pgs), but I don’t feel like anything is skipped over. Despite how quick a read, the other characters are set up really nicely. In fact I like the way Sala set it all up, so –hopefully- Tara and company can really get down to business in the next book. It’s very Nancy Drew, meets Ghost Whisperer. And the loose ends are exactly what lead into the next book of the series, so I like that it kind of ties together rather than being a stand-alone.

The Cons: Tara does do some of the typical ‘let’s-go-confront-someone-who-might- be-a-killer-without-telling-anyone-where-I’m-going’ crap. *Sigh*. Her relationship with Flynn (hottie bad boy) takes off a little quickly, not to mention that he sounds a little too ripped for high school, but what do I know – look at Taylor Lautner in the Twilight movies…it’s just wrong. I’m old. The ending is very Scooby Doo – meddling kids solving the mystery. And for some reason I can’t put my finger on the third person is a little jarring, I swore I was reading first person, then suddenly third but I think that’s because I’m crazy. It also might have to do with reading things from Tara’s head which are first person. I think mostly because I’m crazy. But these are minor grumbles.

Big Con: It’s kind of hard to find this story. I got from a special site so I could review it, but when I went to look for places to purchase it, the only places I could find are Amazon and the publisher Bell Books. According to Sala’s site, the second book is already out, but that one I can’t find anywhere so…..kind of aggravating.

Overall it was a fun read and I’ll definitely read the next book in the series, The Lunatic Detective, whenever I can actually find a copy…