Beyond The Grave Early Review

BEYOND THE GRAVE BY MARA PURNHAGENPAST MIDNIGHT #3

"I can't move forward with my life until I know my demons are confined to the past..."

"Being Charlotte Silver, the daughter of famous paranormal investigators, means my life isn't like that of other teenage girls. Especially after what happened to my parents. Things changed. I missed prom and deferred my big college plans. But I still have my boyfriend, Noah. He's everything I could want-if I can figure out what's up with him. Suddenly Noah is secretive."

"I fear it has something to do with what happened to us three months ago. The bruise Noah suffered during a paranormal attack has never completely faded. Now I've learned Noah is researching demons. And when he disappears, it's up to me to find him-before something else does."

Charlotte just wants to move on with her life, but she can't until she knows that The Watcher is gone for good. She's put her life and future on hold in order to try and hold things together in the aftermath of his attack. She wants to be there for her father as they cling to hope for her mother's recovery, but things aren't looking good. The only thing she can count on is Noah, or so she thought. Something is different about him, and she isn't sure what is going on. All she knows is that he's suddenly being very secretive and not where he says he will be. She has the nagging feeling it has something to do with the Watcher's attack on him as the bruises never faded. Charlotte is going to have to use every bit of strength she has left to keep her family and her heart from falling apart completely as the final showdown looms just around the corner.

Charlotte was a little too clueless for my tastes at times, especially when it came to Noah. Perhaps she was just trying not to see what was in front of her because she didn't want to believe anything was wrong with him. I guess it was just a really bad case of denial, but it struck me as a little immature. She also hadn't learned from her past mistakes of not telling her family everything from the start. Considering the fact that her mother probably wouldn't be in a coma right now if she had come clean immediately I found her continued secrecy to be a little baffling. She self-justified this by saying that she didn't want to worry anyone or cause more stress, but honestly that was a cop out to avoid confrontation.

I was a little frustrated that we didn't get to see Charlotte and Noah together very much. I guess I shouldn't be surprised after reading the synopsis, but it took so long for them to finally get together in the previous books that I was really looking forward their relationship in Beyond the Grave. I just feel that there is so much potential between them and I would have loved to have seen their relationship really grow. I was really happy with the addition of a new character named Michael as he really added something great to the book. Also it was nice to see another side of Bliss. I always thought there was much more to her than met the eye, even though she had previously spent every interaction with Charlotte being nasty.

Beyond the Grave had a slow start but eventually picked up. I felt things ended rather well, and definitely left me with a sense of satisfaction. I think the best part about this series was watching all of the characters grow, especially when it came to their beliefs in the paranormal and how those perceptions changed. Some came to belief rather easily and others were extremely stubborn to almost the bitter end, which made for a pretty diversified cast of characters, in turn making the books even more enjoyable. Now that this series is complete, I'll definitely be on the lookout for future books by Mara Purnhagen as I think she is a very talent author. Fans of the previous two installments won't be disappointed in Beyond the Grave as it is a very good tie up to a great paranormal YA series.

(Received copy from Netgalley)

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