By: Kim Harrington
Published by: Scholastic
To Be Released on: March 1st, 2012
Source: book from publisher to review
4 stars: I Enjoyed It
Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Series: Clarity Book #2
Everybody knows about Clarity "Clare" Fern. She's the psychic girl in school, the one who can place her hands on something and see hidden visions from the past.
Only Clare would rather not be a celebrity. She prefers hanging back, observing. Her gift is not a game to her.
But then someone starts playing with her head . . . and heart. Messages and gifts from a secret admirer crop up everywhere Clare turns. Could they be from Gabriel, the gorgeous boy who gets Clare's pulse racing? Or from Justin, Clare's hopeful ex-boyfriend who'd do anything to win her back?
One thing is certain. Clare needs to solve this mystery, and soon. Because the messages are becoming sinister, and a girl in town has suddenly disappeared -quoted from Goodreads
Picking up not long after Clarity ends, Perception starts off with things trying to get back to normal, which is short lived. There's a disappearance, a murder, and not to mention a crazy stalker who's after Clare. Like Clarity, Perception was a fun, quick read full of mystery, and romance. It's one of those books I quickly got immersed in. I had to know who was behind what was going on and before I realized it I was already done with the book. One of the things I really enjoyed about this sequel is the character growths, the romance and the nonstop mystery that is found within Perception's pages.
Clare for me is a character who grew the most. She's much more comfortable with her ability and in fact uses it more openly than she did in Clarity, she's bold, and she finally speaks her mind to a few characters who needed to be put in their places. I also really like the way in which her relationships with Gabriel and Justin grew. I admire her for really thinking about her true feelings for each guy and not rushing into one relationship. The way she feels about both guys was realistic, and I liked that Kim allowed me to see how Clarity was weighing her feelings about both. My personal favorite is Gabriel and I loved getting to know him more. I think a lot of fans of this series will feel the same way. He's hard not to love.
Kim Harrington's writing in this series is fabulous. She has done a fabulous job at creating a story where everyone is a suspect and the end result on who the murderer is, is quite shocking, as well as who the stalker is. I found myself unable to turn the pages fast enough to find out who did it. Kudos to Kim for keeping me guessing. She did a great job at creating characters and incidents that totally threw me off and for a good part of the book keep suspicious about a few of them. I like that I had no idea who the person was until it was revealed. While Kim tied up a few lose ends from Clarity, she also kept enough unanswered questions that leaves me eager to find out what answers she'll will give me in the next installment in this series.
Perception is an exciting, fast paced read and one I highly recommend picking up. It's one fans of mystery, romance and realistic YA reads will enjoy. There is one scene that consists of underage drinking. Be sure to follow Kim's blog to read her latest Perception teasers here.