Michelle's Minions: Review & Contest: The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset

Below the review of The Girl Who Never Was, there is a contest to win a copy. I have TWO copies to give away!

The Girl Who Never Was (Otherworld #1) by Skylar Dorset

Published June 1st, 2014 by Sourcebooks Fire

Source: Paperback acquired at BEA (Book Expo America)

Goodreads link: (click here)

What's it about?

Selkie Stewart lives in Boston with her strange and seemingly ancient aunts, True and Virtue. Her father is insane and has been committed and her mother abandoned her at birth. The only people besides her crazy aunts she trusts are her adventure loving best friend, Kelsey, and Ben, a cute older guy she talks to in the park. On a whim, Selkie reveals her birthday and this sets into motion a prophecy that she's apparently a central figure in. This is because Selkie's search for her absent mother causes her to ask the right questions, and the answers are not at all what she could have ever imagined. It turns out, her family is much, much stranger than she thought. Her mother is actually evil faerie royalty and her father and aunts are ogres...what!? So, that makes Selkie half ogre and half faerie princess. Up until this point, she's been kept safe by her aunts with the help of a wizard and a faerie who can hop in and out of alternate worlds. Selkie has no time to try to wrap her mind around this extraordinary new life because now that she's aware of everything, she's become exposed. The Seelie Court wants her and her mother wants her dead. As the enchantments that kept the real world separate from the magical world dissolve, her eyes are opened to the wonder and danger around her. When Ben is taken hostage by the faeries, she must face the wrath of her mother to save him. She knows she loves Ben, and she thinks she can trust him, but she's been taught not to trust anyone and to question everything. If she can save Ben before they both are "named" aka, magicked into oblivion, she still has that whole prophecy thing to worry about. Life just got really complicated really quickly...or it happened a long time ago...depending on which time you're keeping.

The Girl Who Never Was is fast-paced, whimsical, unique and imaginative. It is an Urban fantasy that definitely channels Alice in Wonderland. Magic, evil faeries, otherworldly creatures, romance and alternate worlds fill the pages and make it really hard to put this book down. Each chapter ended with a mini cliffhanger that made you want to read the next one right away. There was a lot of excitement and action and it was full of whimsy and fun. Fans of Splintered by A.G. Howard, Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige, Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston and Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr will enjoy this book. Actually, I think if all of those books got together and had a book baby, The Girl Who Never Was would be the progeny. Book two, The Boy With the Hidden Name, will be released on December 2nd, 2014 and the prequel eBook, The Girl Who Kissed a Lie, is available now.

So, then...