Review: Significance by Shelly Crane

Significance 
by Shelly Crane

Published: June 2011 

Available: Amazon

Synopsis:

Maggie is a seventeen year old girl who's had a bad year. She was smart and on track but then her mom left, her dad is depressed, she's graduating, barely, and her boyfriend of almost three years dumped her for a college football scholarship. Lately she thinks life is all about hanging on by a thread and is gripping tight with everything she has.

Then she meets Caleb. She saves his life and instantly knows there's something about him that's intriguing but she is supposed to be on her way to a date with his cousin. But things change when they touch, sparks ignite. Literally.

They imprint with each other and she sees their future life together flash before her eyes. She learns that not only is she his soul mate, and can feel his heartbeat in her chest, but there is a whole other world of people with gifts and abilities that she never knew existed. She herself is experiencing supernatural changes unlike anything she's ever felt before and she needs the touch of his skin to survive.

Now, not only has her dad come out of his depression to be a father again, and a pain as well, but Caleb's enemies know he's imprinted and are after Maggie to stop them both from gaining their abilities and take her from him. Can Caleb save her or will they be forced to live without each other after just finding one another?

Review:

I have to start off by sharing a slightly funny story. A few weeks back I was on Amazon, searching for some new books and I kept coming back to this idea of a girl and boy who discover they are soul mates when they first touch each other. I searched and searched, trying to find a cover or blurb that sounded familiar. I knew I'd seen it as part of a giveaway blog hop, so I finally went back the the original Linky list for the hop and started looking at the 200+ participating blogs. Well, after about 50 blogs I gave up, figuring if I was meant to read it I would eventually find it. Fast forward three days and I got home to find a large package in my mailbox. And there it was! The book I'd been searching for was one I'd actually one in a giveaway!! That book was Significance.

Anyways, I'm glad that fate found a away for me to read this book. I really enjoyed it. If you love a sweet romance with a paranormal twist then this is definitely a good choice.

When I first started reading, I was a bit worried that Maggie was going to be one of those pity party characters, constantly complaining about everything  and everyone in her life. Thank goodness, she wasn't. She ended up being a pretty likable character, and best of all she's not constantly being rescued by Caleb, and in fact by the end of the book she's the more powerful of the two. 

The love story is really the main part of the book, and everything else just seems to build into that relationship. While there is obviously a planned love triangle heading their way in the rest of the series, I think Crane did an amazing job of developing Maggie and Caleb's connection as one that includes absolute trust and faith in the other. Not just because they are attracted to each other, but because they are able to see into each other's souls, something that isn't just told to the reader, but shown as well.

Part of me wants to give this 5 stars, but there were some awkward phrasings and it started following the too common YA paranormal love triangle formula a bit too much. But I will definitely be checking out the next book in the series, might try to hold out a month or two to see if I can find it in a giveaway :)