Review: Phantom Touch by Jessica Hawke

Goodreads Summary:

Bridget White just wants to be an average girl, but the car accident that killed her sister took away everything normal in Bridget's life. Now she spends her days talking to unhappy ghosts and helping them move on to the afterlife. But dealing with death on a daily basis is too much for one girl to handle, so when she finds a way to get rid of her supernatural sight, she jumps at the chance. There's just one more job standing between her and normal. When a missing local girl turns up as a freshly murdered ghost, Bridget realizes she's the only one who can find the killer. Worse still, he's not done killing. Now Bridget may have to sacrifice her only chance at being normal to stop him from taking another innocent life.

Publication Date: October 28, 2013

This book had my emotions all over the place! I was laughing, crying and biting my nails throughout the entire novel. I loved Bridget’s spunk and the ending left me absolutely reeling. Jessica, if you are reading this, you NEED TO WRITE A SEQUEL!

I wasn’t sure what direction the book was going at the start. I have a tendency to skim book summaries in order to avoid spoilers (I hate book summaries that basically give everything away). I loved how the author took her time in revealing Bridget’s abilities and how they had affected the relationships she had with her friends and family.

The secondary characters were well developed. I especially loved Michael. As soon as Bridget teams up with him to find his missing sister, I was hoping for a romance to develop. Bridget’s friend Emily was irritating, but she felt like a very realistic character. A lot of the ghosts were great too with my likely favorites being Sal and Val.

The plot was excellent and I loved the story being told from Bridget’s POV. She’s snarky and tough when she needs to be. Along with ghost drama, Bridget has to deal with normal everyday high school drama. Her interactions with her classmates gave the book a very realistic feel despite the paranormal aspects.

The serial killer angle was scary and I felt for Bridget as she attempted to do the right thing despite everyone around her thinking she was crazy. There is also a touching subplot about Bridget trying to move on after the death of her sister years earlier.

And then the ending happened and I had a bit of a freak out. Bridget’s story can’t be over! I’m all for standalones but this absolutely needs to be a series. The ending was too open-ended for my tastes and I can’t move on without my darn HEA. I highly recommend Phantom Touch. It was good scary fun with characters I won’t forget about anytime soon.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars