Book Review: "Shadowland"

Shadowland (The Mediator #1)

by Meg Cabot

Goodreads Summary: Suze is a mediator-a liaison between the living and the dead. In other words, she sees dead people. And they won't leave her alone until she helps them resolve their unfinished business with the living. But Jesse, the hot ghost haunting her bedroom, doesn't seem to need her help. Which is a relief, because Suze has just moved to sunny California and plans to start fresh, with trips to the mall instead of the cemetery, and surfing instead of spectral visitations. But the very first day at her new school, Suze realizes it's not that easy. There's a ghost with revenge on her mind, and Suze happens to be in the way.

Review: Even though Meg Cabot is a big author, this was actually the first book I've read by her, and I was pleasantly surprised.  The premise isn't very original, but I liked what she did with the characters and the direction of the series.  Suze is your typical sassy heroine and I enjoyed reading about her adventures.  While I wish there was more character development, it was still a fun and fast read, and I'm glad I finally gave it a chance.

Rating: 3/5

Additional Notes: To be honest, I would never in a million years have picked this off the shelf at the library.  I actually found this book while trying to find something to read off of Overdrive for my Kindle.  And in the process, I found a new series that I think I'm going to really enjoy reading!  This was the first new book that I read on my Kindle, so I have a few thoughts about reading on a Kindle now.

The biggest disadvantage of a Kindle vs. a print book is that I tend to read fast and skim details, and so when the time comes that I need to recall a detail, I found it a lot harder to find that detail.  With a physical book, I could go through easily to find the page I'm looking for, but it's much harder to do so with a Kindle.  The biggest advantage, however, was the fact that Kindle stops me from flipping ahead.  It's a really bad habit of mine, especially since I spend more time reading ahead than I do reading the actual book.  It seems like I'll be finishing books faster now that I've stopped reading ahead (which means being able to read more books!).

Kindle!

Santa (or, rather, my husband) bought me a Kindle for Christmas! 

I'm what you call a "late adopter" when it came to e-readers.  I thought they were silly and there was no need for them; I mean, c'mon, what is better than having an actual book in your hand?  And then you add in the fact that I work in a library.  Why would I want to buy books when I can borrow them for free?  E-readers were pricey, the selection from Overdrive (the digital public library) wasn't great, and you couldn't download books onto the Kindle.  But then, long story short, Amazon lowered their Kindle price, allowed Overdrive books to be downloaded to the Kindle earlier this year, and I re-discovered NetGalley, a website that allows me, as a librarian, to request digital galleys of upcoming books.  After intense debating, I finally decided that I do want an e-reader, and my husband happily obliged! 

I played with it a bit yesterday, and it is extremely easy to download books from Overdrive - I think it's even easier than downloading books onto your computer or any other e-reader (except for maybe the iPad).  I was very impressed!  If you have a Kindle and your library has Overdrive, you should check it out.  Well, I should say that if you have any e-reader, you should check it out - it's easy for the Kindle, but it's not that much harder for the other devices.  The selection has also gotten much better recently, and even though you might have to wait a bit for popular books, it's no different from getting them from your library.

For those of you who might still be reluctant, I also realized yesterday that just because I have a Kindle now doesn't mean it has to replace printed books.  I'll still check out library books and buy books that I love.  The Kindle just makes it easier to borrow books that I might not otherwise check out, or get titles that have a huge waiting list or aren't available in print in the library.  It's also extremely convenient, and if you're like me and like to read ahead in books (bad habit!  I know!), the Kindle prevents that.  I'm extremely happy with the present!