Review: One Past Midnight by Jessica Shirvington

One Past Midnight

Author: Jessica Shirvington
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Walker Books (Bloomsbury)
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format: ARC
Release Date: July 22, 2014
Source: ARC received from publisher at ALA
Rating: 4.5 Stars
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***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way changed my opinion of the book. The review below is my open and honest opinion.***  

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.

Until now, that is...

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?

My Review:

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book when I first read the synopsis. I love parallel world stuff and I haven’t read too many books about parallel words so I jumped on it. This book was so amazing and made me want to immediately go out and buy all of Jessica Shirvington’s other books and binge-read them back to back.

The main character, Sabine, lives in two different worlds. Each day at midnight she shifts. She looks the same in both worlds, but she has two different families and two different lives. Her personality somewhat changes between her worlds, but you could still tell that it was the same Sabine. I loved watching Sabine try to figure out who she was and what was going on with her life. She struggled to make a huge decision throughout the whole book. Given the choice, which world would she choose? She thinks she has it all figured out, but as the book goes on, she learns some important lessons that make her question everything. Her character was truly refreshing. She was so unique and she definitely stuck out in a crowd of YA female leads. Sabine will stick with me for a long time.

I loved Sabine’s little sister in her one life and her older brothers in her other. Her little sister was so adorable, so full of life. I loved every scene she was in. I wanted to jump inside the book and hug this sweet little girl. Her older brothers were a bit more complicated, but I could tell they cared and some of their actions were ones that have made me wish my whole life that I had an older brother.

You would think that with two lives, things would get complicated and hard to keep straight, but they weren’t. It was easy to shift back and forth and learn about all the different people in Sabine’s lives. Perhaps it was because the people in her two different lives were so different. Especially her parents. I wasn’t a huge fan of either sets of parents to be honest. The ones in her Roxbury life were distant, angry, and quick to judge. But her parents in her Wellesley life were absent and didn’t pay much attention to what was going on. Her Wellesley mom was okay, but I wish that she had had a better relationship with all of them.

The romance was so sweet and adorable and I just died. I do think that the l-word was used a bit prematurely, but I decided to overlook it because I loved everything about the guy. He was sweet, supportive, the right amount of skeptical, but also willing to give Sabine a chance. He was so amazing.

You know what I didn’t expect? To get my heart ripped out. I didn’t expect this book to be quite so emotional, but I was crying and screaming and cursing Jessica Shirvington throughout. Then by the end, I was taking it all back and immediately going on Goodreads to add all her other books to my wishlist. It was a roller coaster of emotions and I appreciated and treasured every one of them. This book took me by complete surprise. I hadn’t heard anything about it before reading it and I was happy for that. If you like parallel worlds or contemporary, I think you will enjoy this book. Prepare for a journey like no other. Happy reading all! 

Let's talk! Have you read this one? What did you think of Sabine and her two worlds? Did you get your heart ripped out? Do you like the way the author resolved things?