“If you live LONG enough… love (and danger) will find you.

A new family has just arrived in the isolated mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. Welcome the Johnstons – Jason (a doctor), Rachel (a designer), and their niece Emily (a current High School Senior).

Emily has lived the life of a quiet loner in the past, trying to go unnoticed. But with Telluride being such a small and welcoming town, she finds a group of friends at school almost immediately. When Emily meets Link (another new transplant in town) her world turns upside down. She doesn’t understand why she feels a magnetic pull toward him, or why she unknowingly lets her guard down around him. Link is just as confused by his own need to be with her.

Emily knows she is playing with fire. She should be doing whatever she can to keep herself isolated, to keep Link from getting too close. Danger has a way of finding Emily’s family – that is what keeps them on the move. They arrive in a new town every few years – it is safer that way.

Because… Emily isn’t really Emily… her real name is Charity – and Charity has an even bigger secret. Charity and her family are not like other people, they have “skills” that mere mortals cannot begin to comprehend.

Before long, Charity is struggling with the reality that her two lives are coming closer to each other with each passing day. Soon Link will find himself wrapped in a supernatural world that he never knew existed – and discover that mortals are not the only beings that walk this earth.”

When it comes to YA Urban Fantasy/Romance novels, I’m a pretty picky person. The market is flooded with this genre and as a result I’m a little more harsh in my judgment. Just letting you know!

A Chance for Charity is written in first person POV, which as a definite mark in its favour, I didn’t mind all that much. As I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of first person, and if the writing isn’t up to par, I won’t continue reading it.

The book starts out at a nice speedy clip, and I must admit that I much preferred the beginning while you were still waiting for all those secrets to be revealed; the mystery makes it more ‘spellbinding’. Once you knew all the hidden details the book slowed down to a quick crawl and pretty much stayed at that pace until the end. It wasn’t ‘too’ slow, but it wasn’t as interest-catching as I enjoy.

Another point in its favor, to balance out my complaining, is the fact that it isn’t too soppy. For some reason YA tends to take the fluff a bit overboard; and it ends up taking away from the story because it’s just too ridiculous. A Chance for Charity was much more toned down in that regard.

Unfortunately I found it a little too ‘unbelievable’ for my tastes; certain character reactions weren’t real enough — especially when a certain minor character loses someone. They should have been upset, very upset… and suspicious of everyone involved. Not simply sad and willing to fall immediately in love with the first individual of the opposite sex they see after it happens. (I tried to keep that as spoiler-free as possible. :P )

So to wrap it up; the story wasn’t particularly elaborate, but it was always intriguing enough to keep me reading. It’s an easy read with no strong hanky-panky — I’d say it would be just fine for older teens. There are some typos but they aren’t endless and though it definitely has its flaws I enjoyed it and found a small smile snuck out when I reached the end. 

/5

You can find A Chance For Charity as an ebook on Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble.

… or in paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.