Magnetic Shift Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for MAGNETIC SHIFT! Today I'll be sharing my review of the book with you - and don't forget to enter the awesome giveaway! To follow the rest of the tour, check out the schedule at the end of the post.

Magnetic Shift

Author: Lucy D. Briand

Genre: YA Suspense

Release Date: April 12, 2016

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Format: Paperback; eBook

Find It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Description:

The ability to magnetize and manipulate metal with the flick of her wrist makes seventeen-year-old Lexi Adams a crack mechanic, but it’s a disaster in the making when her stepdad trades her skills to NASCAR team owner Dean Grant for an entire season’s worth of sponsorship ads.

Now Lexi has no other choice but to suck it up and hope she can keep her magnetic impulses under control—that is, until she runs into NASCAR’s hot new rookie, Colton Tayler.

When Carl Stacy, the ruthless team owner of the defending Cup Champion, discovers Lexi’s secret and plots to use it to ruin Dean’s race team for good, Lexi must either expose her ability to save Colton, risking Dean’s career and her own freedom in the process, or watch the only guy she’s ever fallen for race to his death. 

Magnetic Shift is an original blend of science fiction, romance, and suspense that breathes some fresh air into the young adult genre. The story follows our main character - Lexi - as she lives her one year working for NASCAR team owner Dean Grant. Her stepdad was nice enough to basically sell her and her mechanical skills in exchange for a season's worth of advertising. Things wouldn't be so bad, except Lexi has a secret - she can manipulate metal with just a thought or a movement of her hand. She's spent her life trying to keep her abilities a secret - but working at the track is quickly unraveling her defenses. Enter rookie driver and extreme hottie Colton Taylor - and Lexi is all but doomed. With her attraction to Colton growing by the day, Lexi's life starts to spiral out of control. When her abilities are discovered by a rival team owner who plans on using them to destroy her current boss' career and to end Colton's career, and maybe his life, Lexi has to decide which is more important - keeping her abilities a secret or revealing them to Colton and saving him from the most dangerous race in his life.
 
The overall premise of this novel is interesting and definitely something new compared to the rest of YA fiction out right now. I'm not a big fan of NASCAR and know basically nothing about it, but that didn't factor into my reading experience at all. Everything that the reader needs to know is explained in an easy to understand way. I was a bit nervous that the whole NASCAR aspect of the book was going to confuse me and/or turn me off to the novel completely. However, the author did a great job infusing just the right amount of racing terms and action to balance out the other parts of the novel - mainly Lexi's abilities and her romance with Colton. I thought that Lexi's character was decently developed, but could have been more rounded. Come to think of it, all of the characters in the story were at least a little flat, with some of them being not much more than stereotypes. I enjoyed watching Lexi's relationship with Colton blossom - it was a bit more believable than some other novels, which I liked. The overall plot wasn't completely original - it's your typical blackmail situation basically - but the addition of Lexi's abilities gave it a new twist and kept things interesting. 

I'm not a huge fan of YA contemporary fiction, so I don't read much of it. In all honesty, this book would have lost my interest early on - but it's saving grace was the author's writing style. I'm a huge advocate for first person point of view - if you've read my reviews before, you know all of my reasons for loving it. The author used the first person POV for the story - it's told from Lexi's perspective - and that's what saved it for me. The reader's able to connect so much deeper to the narrator and can really immerse themselves inside the world the author has created. In my opinion, it's one of the best writing styles an author can use - and in this occasion, it was a great fit and saved me from giving up on it. Please note that these are my personal opinions - I know that others readers will have a completely different experience than I did. There's nothing wrong or bad about the book at all (except for the bit I mentioned above). It's well written, has a great pace - not too fast or too slow - an original twist on a much used plot, and the romance is sweet. I definitely recommend that fans of the genre give this one a try! Chances are you'll have a completely different opinion and end up loving it!

Lucy D. Briand lives in Ottawa, Canada with her comic book fanatic husband and her nonchalant Siamese cat.

By day she works full time as a public servant for the Government of Canada, but by night her creative mind takes over and conjures up young adult gear-head romance stories with supernatural twists.

When not working, reading, writing, or watching way too much TV, Lucy likes to cosplay, attend ComicCons, go on road trips to Walt Disney World, and play ridiculous amounts of board games. She’s a geek to the core but is also a huge NASCAR Cup fan.

Lucy is represented by Brittany Booker Carter of The Booker Albert Literary Agency.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram

Giveaway Details:
(1) Winner will receive a finished copy of MAGNETIC SHIFT - US Only!
(1) Winner will receive a swag prize pack and $25 Amazon Gift Card - Open International! 

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Tour Schedule: 

Week One: 

4/4/2016- Curling Up With A Good Book- Interview 

4/5/2016- Take Me Away To A Great Read- Review 

4/6/2016- Moonlight Gleam Reviews- Guest Post 

4/7/2016- A Dream Within A Dream- Review 

4/8/2016- Two Chicks on Books- Interview 

Week Two: 

4/11/2016- Eli to the nth- Review 

4/12/2016- Lost in Ever After- Guest Post 

4/13/2016- A Backwards Story- Review 

4/14/2016- The Cover Contessa- Interview 

4/15/2016- With Love for Books - Review