J. W. Phillips

Julie’s not really an angel, but Trucker seems to think she is. There again, Trucker’s not what he seems. And Julie might be his salvation.

The premise is cool, and J.W. Phillips’ Finding Home starts with a great sense of mystery behind its characters as they meet in the summer heat of Promise Land, Tennessee. Julie’s entering her senior year at the small town’s small school. But Trucker surely has other things on his mind. Still, she muses, “One thing is for sure no matter what secrets he is hiding, he has left his handprint on my heart.”

Finding Home isn’t a vampire-in-the-bedroom teen romance, but it’s teen romance with the same slightly creepy, someone-watching-in-the-bedroom sense. An intriguingly different mythology powers its characters, and there’s a dark world fighting for Trucker’s soul, assuming he has one. Ultimately it reads rather like Beauty and the Beast crossed with Twilight. It's intriguing, darkly romantic, slowed by some editing glitches and clichés plus the inevitable soul-searching, but fast and furious at times, and definitely different.

Disclosure: I found it when it was free.… (mehr)