Shimmer

          The book Shimmer by Alyson Noel is the second book in the Riley Bloom series. The series is a spin-off series of the Immortals series by Alyson Noel. The Riley Bloom series is about a girl named Riley, whose biggest dream is to become a teenager, but dies at only 12 years old. She stays on the earth plane for a while, before crossing the bridge to the Here & Now (sort of like the afterlife) and becoming a Soul Catcher, where her job is to persuade ghosts who are lingering too long on the earth plane to cross the bridge. In the first book, Radiance, Riley accomplishes what no other Soul Catcher ever has: persuading the Radiant Boys to cross the bridge. In Shimmer, Riley persuades a spoiled, but angry and mean girl named Rebecca to cross the bridge without her guide's or the Council's permission, which is forbidden. I just finished this book and my opinion on it is that it's really good and I really liked it.

          I really liked this book. Even though it was only 196 pages, and not that much really happened in the book, it still was really good. Not only did she save her friends from Rebecca, but she saved everyone Rebecca was torturing, let Prince Kanta (someone who helped Riley save her friends after they met) cross the bridge, and she persuaded Rebecca to cross over too. This shows how much Riley is capable of. Even though she's stubborn and doesn't follow directions, she's in the right direction and is a really good Soul Catcher.

          I really liked the message of this book. This book expresses the idea about how going by your instinct and by what you think is right to do is sometimes better than following the rules. Riley knew she had to free Rebecca and her dog, and even though she was told not to, she still did it, and it helped everyone in the end. Though Riley's disobedience doesn't always help people; if she didn't follow Rebecca's scary dog to her, Riley never would have gotten into the situation that she did, although she did learn a lesson: to follow the rules. The two messages about going by your instinct and following the rules are almost opposites, but they are still very important in life.

          I also like Riley as a character. I like how she's not perfect, like how she doesn't listen to the rules and what people tell her to do and not to do, but she always does what she thinks is right. I like that about her, because she doesn't care about what other people tell her to do, she sort of shrugs it off and goes her own way, which shows how independent and confident she is about herself. Riley also always tries to change herself to make herself better and for people to respect her more, which makes her really cool. It feels like she could be a real person in your daily life.

          I really liked this book and I would recommend it to anyone. It has a really good storyline and I like how Riley learns a  lesson, even though the book isn't totally cheesy, and it's really interesting. I'm currently reading the third book in the Riley Bloom series, Dreamland, and I expect it to be as good as the first and the second. I hope it is!