Nightshifted (Edie Spence, #1)

by Cassie Alexander

[Angie]

Nightshifted is the start of what I think will be a super fun and unique series! Edie Spence is a nurse on the night shift at the County hospital, but she's on a floor that doesn't officially exist. In exchange for keeping her brother clean, Edie took a job in the paranormal ward. The pay sucks, and so do the patients (literally). Then one night, Edie loses a patient and attempts to carry out his dying wish: save Anna. The only clue to who that is is a photo in Mr. November's pocket watch, which luckily has his address on the back. Edie heads over there and is thrust head first in the supernatural world, where more than her life is at stake.

I loved the world of Nightshifted! There's vampires, daylighters (the vamps' daytime people who are kind of in transition), weres (even a weredragon!), shapeshifters, and zombies! Edie is just a regular human, but that doesn't stop the vampires from coming after her for killing one of their own. It was in self-defense, but they don't believe her, so she's going on trial anyway. Now, Edie has a week to find representation, and to find Anna to testify for her. It's a big ol' mess! But she's got a zombie on her side, and he's pretty awesome! I actually think the zombies are my favorite creature in this series (so far). They're not the slow, shambling, mindless, flesh eaters. Ti is pretty normal, except that he's hard to kill, and can regenerate body parts if he consumes flesh. He's also a nice guy! I just adored him, and can't wait to learn more about the zombies!

The only real issues I had with Nightshifted was that Edie makes really stupid mistakes. The first being forgetting to re-restrain Mr. November, leading to his imminent demise. But, of course, there would have been no story if Edie had been more careful with her job. I still can't forgive that though, since I immediately noticed that she forgot to restrain his arm after she was finished talking to him. The next was asking her junkie brother to watch her cat. Apparently Edie can leave her cat alone all night to work, but not for a few hours to go to the emergency room. That made no sense at all, and even less sense than contacting her brother, who promptly sold her furniture to buy heroin. Seriously. I also didn't get why Edie carried around "Grandfather" (you'll have to read it to find out, since he's kind of awesomely creepy) all the time if she doesn't understand a word of German!

All in all, I did really enjoy Nightshifted. It was a ton of fun, and never boring. Edie's life is a mess all because of one mistake. A major mistake, but still. I loved the different takes on the supernatural creatures featured, and how they fit into society (or not). The ending was a bit rushed and messy, but it did leave me excited for more!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.