Hereafter by Tara Hudson

Paperback: 416 pages

• Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks (7 July 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0007430507
• ISBN-13: 978-0007430505
• Can there truly be love after death?
  Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life – or her actual death – she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.
  Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit is doing everything in his power to destroy their new-found happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world… forever.
• Cover: A hauntingly beautiful cover that suits the book perfectly.  I would have loved the edition to be the same as the US in that the IS edition is a hardback and shiny which is stunning but the UK paperback, non shiny edition is pretty too.
• Plot: Amelia drowned.  She can't remember how she ended up in the river but she relives her death.  A lot.  She's stuck between live and death, a ghost, no one notices her.  Until one night Joshua ends up in the river.  Amelia doesn't want him to doe and tries to save him.  He sees her.  Can anything happen between them?  Especially when someone else may have plans for Amelia...

I was very excited for this book, so much so that I bought it on the day that it was released but I only just got around to reading it.  I enjoyed this book but not as much as I thought I would.  I found that it became very repetitive, for example, the interaction between Amelia and Joshua, and these black shadows in some creepy afterworld are mentioned a lot but are not explained which is very frustrating.  This book felt like it's primary focus was to set up for the next books in the series.  It focuses heavily on the romance between Amelia and Joshua.  Which I don't mind since I love to read romance but some will find this annoying with little plot to make it substantial.  

Overall I did enjoy this book, it just had a few little niggly bits that I found frustrating or repetitive but I will definitely be checking out book 2, Arise, next year.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars.