Review + Giveaway: Stitch by Samantha Durante

I'm happy to be part of the blog tour for Samantha Durante's debut YA paranormal/dystopia Stitch! The entire schedule of the tour can be found here. My review can be read below, and at the very bottom you can enter to win one of three ebook copies (open international) from the author! Good luck!

Title: Stitch (Stitch Trilogy, #1)
Author: Samantha Durante
Pages: 314
Publisher: Samantha Durante
Release Date: August 1, 2012
Buy it now: Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble

Her heart races, her muscles coil, and every impulse in Alessa’s body screams at her to run… but yet she’s powerless to move.

Still struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her parents, the last thing college freshman Alessa has the strength to deal with is the inexplicable visceral pull drawing her to a handsome ghostly presence. In between grappling with exams and sorority soirees – and disturbing recurring dreams of being captive in a futuristic prison hell – Alessa is determined to unravel the mystery of the apparition who leaves her breathless. But the terrifying secret she uncovers will find her groping desperately through her nightmares for answers.

Because what Alessa hasn’t figured out yet is that she’s not really a student, the object of her obsession is no ghost, and her sneaking suspicions that something sinister is lurking behind the walls of her university’s idyllic campus are only just scratching the surface…

The opening installment in a twist-laden trilogy, Stitch spans the genres of paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi to explore the challenges of a society in transition, where morality, vision, and pragmatism collide leaving the average citizen to suffer the results.

My Thoughts: Stitch began as a paranormal romance that was familiar and refreshing at the same time. It was familiar in that it was about a girl who was trying to figure out what she wanted out of life while being haunted by the presence of a ghost only she could see. The refreshing aspects of it were that the girl was a college student (yay for new adult!) and that she was having recurring nightmares of a prison. Now, having strange dreams may seem typical of the paranormal genre, but in actuality, it played a big role in why the story wasn't just a paranormal.

That's one thing I liked about Stitch and why I found it to be so unique. It can't be pegged to one genre. While it may have started off as a paranormal romance, it drastically transformed into a dystopian sci-fi later on. Having elements of various genres really amplified the mystery and  suspense. I didn't see lots of things that were revealed coming, and I have to commend the author for managing to keep the story balanced even after adding another major genre into the mix.

Alessa, one of the main characters of Stitch, was likable and mature, and if it weren't for the dreams and the ghost, she would have seemed like a regular girl. The chapters within the first 100 or so pages were all from her perspective. Although the story was a bit slow-going during that time, it was nice getting to know her character and trying to solve the mystery of the ghost along with her. However, once the story passed over the 100-page mark, the story really began to pick up. We started getting chapters from another character's perspective, a character named Issac. I loved reading his chapters! Reading through a male's perspective tends to always be interesting and enjoyable to me.

Without revealing too much, there was a romance between Issac and Alessa. The love story was great, and my favorite parts of the novel were actually their moments together and finding out how they became a couple. I wanted to know even more about their relationship than what was shown in the novel though. Thankfully, from WinterHaven Books' interview with the author, we will be learning more about Alessa's and Issac's pasts in the sequel Shudder. I'm crossing my fingers that it means their relationship too!

Not only am I looking forward to knowing more about Alessa and Issac, I'm also looking forward to knowing more about the rest of the characters and the world. Stitch was a unique story and a great start to the trilogy. Whether you like paranormal, dystopia, sci-fi, or romance, Stitch had a good balance of each and more to satisfy a range of readers.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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