Day: February 2, 2021

Beneath Her Skin

This is going to be a shorter review than usual because this is an unusual blog tour – there are two books to review at the same time.

And I don’t want to take too much of your time, because you should use that time to go get these books and read them.

For the first one, Beneath Her Skin, it was a great introduction to the town and the characters.

I especially liked the way we got to know the twins.

The description of their “abilities” was gradual. It wasn’t a “Hey, look what they can do!” type of intro, it was more subtle.

Now, I like esoteric and “other-worldly” things, so I was pre-disposed to like this book and the talents of the twins. But the way the author approached it made it even more palatable for “non-believers.”

That’s probably reading a little bit too much into it. I’m trying to say to give this one a try.

The story itself is good. It is YA heavy, and this is where I found it a little bit weak. It seemed like the author was trying too hard at times to be witty and “youthful.”

That being said, at the same time, there were some wicked one-liners and asides that were almost blink-and-you’ll-miss-them. (Like the coffee reference at the end of chapter one). Those worked well.

Since it’s a mystery thriller, and we all know how I hate spoilers, read the blurb or other reviews for details. But I will say that “Hay-Tay” are unique protagonists, and I enjoyed the girl power (literally) they shared to solve the mystery.

Dying to Be Her

Moving on to the second book, I found it very similar to the first one, but that wasn’t a bad thing.

Hayley and Taylor have another mystery to solve, again involving the death of a teenager, and they use their supernatural twin powers to figure out who and why.

One thing that I noticed in the first book and again here, is that some of the plotting seems rudimentary. That could be because the author is trying for a YA vibe, so things are not very complicated.

However, both of these books were released under different titles almost a decade ago. So, I’m guessing this was also an early try at the genre. There were little things, like the repetitiveness about the twins’ mother’s background and their father’s profession.

At times, it seemed like background information came out of nowhere, almost like “I need to get A in here so that B makes sense.” There were also a few leaps of logic.

BUT, that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. I found myself liking the simplicity of the storyline – there weren’t a lot of twists and turns to keep me guessing, just a simple go-with-the-flow narrative that allowed me to follow the twins as they figured everything out.

As the books were written a while ago, and the author has apparently moved on, it doesn’t appear that there are any more in the series, which is a shame. Because I would certainly like to read more about the twins and their abilities.

Author Bio:

A #1 New York Times, Amazon Charts, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, Olsen has written nine nonfiction books, seventeen novels, a novella, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child.

The award-winning author has been a guest on dozens of national and local television shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel.

The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year by the ILA and Starvation Heights was honored by Washington’s Secretary of State for the book’s contribution to Washington state history and culture.

Olsen, a Seattle native, lives in Olalla, Washington with his wife, twin daughters, three chickens, Milo (an obedience school dropout cocker) and Suri (a mini dachshund so spoiled she wears a sweater).