Arise (Hereafter #2) by Tara Hudson

Summary:

Amelia—still caught between life and death—must fight for every moment of her relationship with the human boy Joshua. They can hardly even kiss without Amelia accidentally dematerializing. Looking for answers, they go to visit some of Joshua’s Seer relatives in New Orleans. But even in a city so famously steeped in the supernatural, Amelia ends up with more questions than answers…and becomes increasingly convinced that she and Joshua can never have a future together.Wandering through the French Quarter, Amelia meets other in-between ghosts, and begins to seriously consider joining them. And then she meets Gabrielle. Somehow, against impossible odds, Gaby has found a way to live a sort of half-life...a half-life for which Amelia would pay any price. Torn between two worlds, Amelia must choose carefully, before the evil spirits of the netherworld choose for her.

 Reviewer: Fashionta
The sequel to Hereafter is a hit-or-miss for me in terms of living up to my expectations from the first book which was the debut from this author. This book opens a few weeks after we last saw Amelia and Joshua, who have fallen into a seemly fragile relationship but still with a big issue. They can’t kiss or Amelia will dematerialize.

For those who missed the first book, Amelia is an eighteen year old ghost who died ten years prior. She meets Joshua, her now boyfriend, after saving him from drowning in "her" river. It the river she died drowning in ten years ago and Josh nearly dies there as well. In the previous book this is how they met. Amelia is roaming and saving Josh causes problems with his grandmother, a seer, who believes all ghosts should be banished from the living world. The grandmother is the head of the local branch of seers whose commitment is to send ghosts to heaven or hell.

 But this is not the end of the problems facing the lovers! Eli, her father who preceded her into death and has been banished into the netherworld, is back at the high bridge warning her of things to come and Amelia is left with some hard decisions to make. By using her gift, she has invited trouble from enemies that will want her help and think nothing of going after everyone she knows to get it. When I saw the book and read the blurb, I was reminded that this is a theme we don't see much these days and I decided to request it. I wasn’t disappointed in terms of its plot, but with the choices of characters and the way the plot is played out leaves me a bit frustrated. Characters are going against decisions they've made left and right from one minute to the next. I have to give this book 3.5 stars.   

Publisher: HarperCollins
 Review Courtesy Of: Edelweiss