An ARC REVIEW: The Shepherd by TW Luedke

Skate punks, kleptomaniacs, clairvoyant visions and reincarnation…
…THE SHEPHERD is unlike any other Young Adult novel you have ever read.
Mike Evans here. Sixteen year old skate punk squatting in a white-trash trailer park with my loser drunk Dad. Seems I lost most of my friends when Dad lost our home in foreclosure. Only Anita stuck by me. Worse, I keep having strange clairvoyant visions of things that always come true.
Then I almost ran over Nadia in my Geo. A passing truck finished the job – left a crumpled heap of skin and bone on the road. I fixed her. Me.
Now this fourteen year old girl won’t leave me alone. I sorta let her sneak in my window when she needs a place to crash.
I have a double life: daytime at school, Anita, skating, and then my nights with Nadia. She's my secret friend, gives me money and listens to my problems when nobody else will.
My world is spinning out of control. Old friends have turned enemy, my grisly visions of death won’t quit, and Anita’s intentions make my head spin. Even with all that, I’ve got bigger stuff to worry about.
Nadia’s hiding something.
Sharp, witty, dark and gritty, The Shepherd is the must read YA paranormal thriller of 2013. Get your copy now!

I received an ARC copy to give an honest review.

Okay I am giving this book a 4.5 rating. Only because I didn't feel satisfied with some of the answers.

Now there may be spoilers so reader beware.

Story line was different and something I did not see coming. Meaning Nadia was not who I thought she was.
This is more of a teenage story I want to say Young Adult read, because it deals with high-schoolers drama and well that is it.
I enjoyed how Mike ended up standing up for him self after taking so much drama from his fellow classmates. With the Shepherd you are reading the story from a teenage skater boy was a bit different for me.

The characters were written pretty good, and being as I just graduated high school about 8 years ago it reminded me on how high school was. So I know a bit on how Mike was feeling. You have a bit of a mystery within in the book with who Nadia is and what her story is. Being as she stays with Mike and gives him money, weird right?

Now I would have liked more back story with Mike and his mother. Maybe more visions.

And I do not honestly think that with the texting we needed what it really meant like f2f means (face to face). This could have been put into the prologue or before the story started. I do understand why the author gave us the meaning as maybe people wouldn't understand, but now that everything is cell phones and computer I am sure people know.

Another think, the dating scenes between Anita and Mike it seemed a bit rushed. I mean they start dating and bam they want to start having sex. I guess I would have liked for them to actually have dated without the wanting to jump each others bones so quickly.

If you are looking for something that is a bit different then I say get this book. Give it a try.

About the author:

Travis Luedke is a husband, father, and author of Urban Fantasy Thriller, Paranormal Romance, Contemporary Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, and Sci-fi. He is currently catching a 3rd degree sunburn in San Antonio, Texas, and loving every minute of it.

As the author of the Nightlife Series novels, Travis lives very vicariously through his writings. He invites you to enjoy his macabre flights of fancy, but be warned: The Nightlife Series is violent, sexy, and occasionally violently sexy.