Series Review: Spirit Guide

Spirit Guide Series Author:  E. J. Stevens

She Smells the Dead (Goodreads Summary):
It's the beginning of senior year and Yuki's psychic awareness of ghostly spirits is threatening to ruin her life. Her ability to sense spirits of the dead isn't glamorous like on TV. SHE SMELLS THE DEAD. Yuki is being visited in her dreams and suspects that her friend Calvin is involved in something strange. Will Yuki be able to save the spirits and herself?

Spirit Storm (Goodreads Summary):  
"Let the spirits guide you, but never let them take you."

Spirits of the Dead are coming...

Yuki is about to face an army of lost souls on Samhain, the night of Halloween, when the spirits of the dead roam free. Yuki will need all the help she can get from her friends, but will Calvin be there for her when she needs him the most?   

My Thoughts:
I received these two books from the author to read and review, and I have to admit, I was intrigued from the the titles alone.  I mean really, She Smells the Dead?  How much more interesting can you get, right?  Plus, aren't these covers awesome?!  I think they're awesome.
  
Moving on to actual book talk...  The spirit guide series follows Yuki and Calvin, who are two seemingly normal high school students, until Yuki develops the ability to smell dead people who are not at rest, and Cal discovers he's actually an alpha werewolf.  Odd combo right?  Turns out both of these kids are touched by the spirits, and are bonded as soul mates.  Add in Yuki's best friend Emma who has a major soft spot for animals, and Cal's fellow werewolf Simon, who is wise beyond his years, and you have an extremely interesting and diverse cast of characters.

My only complaint about these books is that I wanted more - more action, more development, and more book!  They're both pretty short, at just over 100 pages each and they totally keep you engaged throughout - well enough that I would have liked them to be longer to go into more detail about the various conflicts the characters faced.

Outside of that, these are a great new take on paranormal YA - smelling dead people certainly hasn't been done before that I know of, and the combination of strange dead person powers and a spirit touched werewolf was really interesting.  I love seeing authors that branch into entirely different areas of paranormal fiction (well, fiction in general, but let's be specific here for a second) rather than sticking with the same old tried and true blockbusters, especially when they do it well.  These are great books for fans of unique paranormal YA in particular, but will probably appeal to anyone who likes a good paranormal read.  Check them out!