Autumn (2013)

Title: Autumn (Dog Days #1)
Author: Sierra Dean
Publisher: Sierra Dean
Published: June 2013

Rating 

I got a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Blurb

Cooper Reynolds's life is going to the dogs...literally.As if being a high school senior in a small Texas town wasn't hard enough, Cooper has bigger things to worry about than who he'll take to prom and whether or not the Poisonfoot Padres will win homecoming. He has less than a year before his eighteenth birthday, when a curse placed on his family will doom him to live in coyote form forever.The last thing he needs to complicate his already messed-up life is a girl, but fate has other plans in mind for him when it brings Eloise "Lou" Whittaker to Poisonfoot. She's grouchy, sarcastic and has no love for her new Texas home, but she might be exactly the right person to help Cooper break the curse.The clock is ticking, and Cooper will have to decide if he's willing to let Lou in on his dirty little secret before it's too late.

My thought

Autumn is very much an “introducing us to the series” book.  It sets everything up perfectly for what should be a very interesting and exciting series 

Autumn tells the story of Lou (short for Eloise).  Lou’s father recently died from cancer and she and her mother, short on cash after having paid off the hospital bills, are moving to Poisonfoot to live with Grandma.  As you can imagine, Lou is not impressed.  I liked Lou immediately.  Even though her situation sucks, she wasn’t overly ‘oh my goodness my life sucks and woe is me and I need attention because my life sucks’ and so on.  She is smart and sharp.  Moving to a small town isn’t the only new thing for Lou: she is suddenly having odd dreams and visions it’s sort of freaking her out.  Of course, soon enough she starts to find out the reason for them but at first, freaking her out.

Cooper has a secret. His family was cursed. He eventually tells Lou everything and they soon discover that their families and this curse are connected. In a rush to learn more and find a way to save Cooper from the curse, Lou accepts those strange things and starts to dig for answers and finds herself in a situation that completely changes everything.

The characters are in high school and there is the extra cute football guy who charms everyone and the extra perky blond girl who’s character is brighter and the teachers who are just dreadful but that’s where the ‘typical YA’ stuff ends.  What made this book tolerable for me is the paranormal aspect and, in true Sierra fashion, the insane twist at the very end of the book.

I honestly can't wait to read the sequel-WINTER, coming November 2013 and find out what happens next for Lou and Cooper.

I highly recommend Autumn if you enjoy reading about the supernatural and curses. I promise you will be thanking me for it! ok you might be cursing me because then you'll be stuck dying to know what happens next too. But that's one of the joys of reading. The suspence ;)