Title: After Burn
Author: Sherry D. Ficklin
Genre: Young Adult/contemporary/mystery
Series: Military Brats #1
Publisher: Rebel Ink Press
Number of Pages: Ebook number not available
Source: Sent to me by the author to read
Sherry Ficklin writes such great Young Adult Heroines. They are strong, independent and don't let anyone boss them around. Reece Barnet in After Burn is no exception. Moving from school to school is something that Reece is used to. After all, her dad is an officer in the Marines. He's just been transferred to Cherry Point Marine Air Station in North Carolina. Reece isn't looking forward to starting over yet again-but she lucks out and finds friends on her first day with Kayla, Derek and Paul. That's not all-one of the popular guys in school Greg, notices her on the first day as well. Reece isn't used to all this attention because in her last school she became a social pariah when she called the police on a party when she discovered her best friend passed out from drugs there.
No sooner has Reece started feeling her way around school and her new friends then bomb threats start being called into her dads squadron. When she finds out that they think the threats are coming from a student at her school she starts looking into it on her own, because she thinks that the people in charge aren't really doing enough to find out the person responsible. Along the way though, she has to decide which guy she likes more Paul, who has a crush on her or Greg who she thinks isn't being entirely honest with her and is the number one suspect on her list...but he can't be responsible for the threats, can he?
One of the things I loved most about After Burn, besides Reece being such a great character, was that I really felt like I was living on a military base and felt like it was like to be a military brat. The setting was just a nice change of pace from all the YA paranormal books I generally read. The romance triangle was really well done, and I found myself going back and forth between Paul and Greg but in the end was happy with who she ended up with. I also enjoyed the girl friendships that Reece had-it seems like in so many YA books the heroine just hangs out with guys or gets so wrapped up in the romance triangle that they forget that they have friends. I only had one small problem with this-it took a long time for the actual mystery to happen...however the storyline preceding it was needed, and I enjoyed getting to know all the characters involved. I can't wait to read another Military Brats book!
Where to buy After Burn: Amazon
