Hello fellow Junkies,

I don't normally leave reviews of books I've read, but I thought I'd mix it up a little bit. Michelle Turner generously gave me a copy of her book Reviving Bloom in exchange for an honest review, and these are my thoughts:

Synopsis:

 Bloom was abandoned by her mother at birth, but thanks to her dad she never once felt unloved. When he is killed in a car wreck, leaving her without any close family, she spends a year mourning him. She feels as if her heart has been cut out of her chest and nothing is left but an empty hole that she doesn’t think will ever heal. Then one night after work she finds a wounded dog in the woods behind her house and takes him in, not realizing he’s more than just some stray dog but a wolf shifter, who happens to be her mate.
Pike is getting over the loss of his father by running full force away from his responsibilities. He’s getting ready to go back to face his new position as the Alpha of his pack when he catches the scent that can only belong to his mate.  

When Bloom finds out she may not be the normal human she always thought herself to be, she’s forced to search out the woman who abandoned her at birth.

I used to read quite a lot of YA when Half Blood was initially intended to be a YA series (aren't you glad that didn't happen? I don't think I could have tamed my boys enough for that), but gave up the 'tameness' for books with more blood, sex and violence BUT when I first saw Michelle Turner's book Reviving Bloom via Facebook and I was immediately drawn to the cover and the blurb on the back. The artwork is so beautifully done and I knew I had to read it.

We're introduced to Bloom Daniels who is a young woman still suffering from the loss of her father. With the help of close family friends and her best friend, Bonnie, she is slowly returning to the land of the living. One night she rescues a dog that turns out to be a shifter and also her mate-not that she knows that at the time. All she knows is that she is drawn to Pike, trusting him implicitly, knowing that he will be there for her. When she finds out that she is also a shifter, she needs the answers to the questions running around her head and there is only one person who can do that: her long-lost mother.

Michelle's story-telling is perfect for her YA audience. The characters are likeable, especially Pike whose strong sense of right and wrong dictates his actions. Bloom is so broken in the beginning that you wonder whether she will ever recover from the death of her father, but you realize she is a strong woman-she just doesn't realize it until Pike comes along.

The plot was good with definite potential for further development in the books to come, but I felt like I wanted to know more about Bloom's year of mourning and her self-imposed exile, her wolf and her history with the other characters. There were some other missing puzzle pieces in the story that I was hoping would be revealed in Reviving Bloom, however Michelle has left us anticipating the release of book two by enticing us with the promise of more detail to come.

There were sweet bits, sexy bits and sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat bits, but all in all a plot that can continue on into the next book in the series and characters that draw you in.

I'd recommend this book if you liked Maggie Streifvater's Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls) series.

About the author:

Michelle is a 28 year old native Ohioan. Go Buckeyes! Who now lives with her husband and son in West Virginia. When she isn't spending time with her family you can find her with her nose stuck in a good book. She released her first book (Reviving Bloom) as an independent author in October 2012 and plans to release two new books (Promised & Enlightening Bloom) in 2013. 

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