The Book of Lost Souls by Michelle Muto:Review and Book Giveaway!

When teen witch Ivy MacTavish changes a lizard into her date for a Halloween dance, everything turns to chaos. And when no one is powerful enough to transform him back except Ivy, it sparks the rumor: Like father, like daughter. Ivy has heard it all before - that her father, who left when she was seven – was involved with the darkest of magic.

Making the rumors worse, someone uses an evil spell book to bring back two of history's most nefarious killers. Ivy's got a simple plan to set things right: find the real dark spell caster, steal the book, and reverse the spell. No problem! But she’ll have to deal with something more dangerous than murderous spirits that want her and her friends dead: the school’s resident bad boy and hotter-than-brimstone demon, Nick Marcelli. Nick’s offering Ivy more than his help with recovering the missing book – he’s offering her a way to ditch her scaly reputation as a lizard-lover. Demons are about as hard to handle as black magic, and as Ivy soon discovers, it’s going to take more than a lot of luck and a little charm if she wants to survive long enough to clear her status as a dark witch, get a warm-blooded boyfriend, and have her former date back to eating meal worms before the week’s end. ~From GoodReads

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  The Book of Lost Souls starts out like a great joke. A witch (Ivy), a vampire (Raven) and a werewolf (Shayde), turn a lizard into a date for the witch. Given an opening like that, I knew this was the book for me. I became instantly immersed in this cool, fun world author Michelle Muto has created. 
  In the town of Northwicke, there are Regulars (humans), and Kindred (supernaturals). The Regulars and Kindred have warred in the past, but now peacefully co-exist. Their agreement is based on mutual trust. The Kindred trust the Regulars to keep their secrets. The Regulars trust the Kindred to keep them safe. The Kindred consist of a wide range of supernatural beings. There are varying from witches, to demons, to trolls. The main character, Ivy, is a witch. Her friends are Shayde and Bane, were wolf twins; Raven and Gareth, vampire siblings, Nick, a demon; Spike, who is Gareth's pet lizard-turned-hottie. And I must not forget Devlin, Ivy's Beezlepup, a fox-dog hybrid.
  Ivy and company are terrific, fun characters to read. When Muto wrote the dialogue, she was absolutely spot-on. The conversation of the characters was real, did not feel forced or awkward at all. These teens were basically good kids. They get into some , or a lot, of mischief. They aren't annoyingly perfect. There is no hand-wringing, whining or brooding. Especially Ivy. Ivy is funny, smart and is able to get herself out of trouble (with some help from her friends). One of my favorite of her friends is Nick. Michelle Muto really hit a home run creating Nick. I was so relieved to read about a really good guy. He's funny, really cool. He seems to have no secrets or agenda. He is a guy who lays it all on the line, letting Ivy know exactly who he is and what he wants. The chemistry between Nick and Ivy had me on edge. Will Ivy ever give in to Nick's charm? Will she realize he's not the bad boy she's made him out to be? Will she ever fully trust Nick? Will the finally kiss???
  The Book of Lost Souls is a funny book, yes. But it is a whole lot more than that. This is a book about friendship, trust, regret and believing in the good in one's self.
  If there was ever an "indie published" book that you should read, it is The Book of Lost Souls. To quote the movie Mary Poppins, it is "Practically perfect in every way".  I wish I had a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" type of thingy to give this book. Maybe I should work on that. In the meantime, I'll go work on begging Michelle Muto for Book 2. 


 Check out the links to purchase The Book of Lost Souls:
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/46322
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QWZ8LO/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10772961-the-book-of-lost-souls
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-book-of-lost-souls-michelle-muto/1030400176?ean=2940012239211&itm=1&usri=the%2bbook%2bof%2blost%2bsouls


Now for the Giveaway. Michelle Muto has graciously offered an ebook, via Smashwords, to one lucky person. This Contest is International. It runs from June 8-June 17. I'm going to try something different for this one. All you have to do is leave a comment  answering the question "Which type of Kindred would you like to be?" (Don't forget to leave your email address.) The winner will be given a coupon code, good for purchase until June 20. Good Luck!