Review and Giveaway: First Visions (Second Sight #1) by Heather Topham Wood

By Heather Topham Wood

Publisher: CreateSpace
Publication Date: April 27, 2012
Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
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Two years ago, 21-year-old Kate Edwards became deathly ill and slipped into a coma. While unconscious, she crept into the mind of a missing boy and awoke with the knowledge of his location. Friends and family were skeptical and wary of her new ability to see into the minds of others. Their fears prompted Kate to keep her psychic powers a secret. Feeling alienated, she dropped out of college and spent most of her days holed up at her mother’s home.

Now another child has been abducted. Police detective Jared Corbett seeks out Kate for her help in solving the case. Reluctantly, Kate agrees and they must work together to bring 8-year-old Cori Preston home to her family. Although attracted to one another, Jared has a girlfriend with ties to the abduction case and Kate is sarcastic and guarded since her coma. With visions she can’t control and an uncontrollable attraction to the detective, she wonders if she can leave the past behind and finally stop hiding from the world. Otherwise, Cori may be lost forever.

Goodreads Summary

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I think books about psychics are usually kind of fun, especially since I am one. I know, you’re saying, “what, we didn’t know that!” No really, I predict you’ll want to read this book by the end of my review. See, I’m good (and humble). One of the really great perks of this series is that the next three books are already out and the fourth is coming soon, so you can read this and then gorge yourself on more snarkalicious, grouchy Kate, who’s admittedly a better psychic than me.

Waking from a freak case of meningitis that put her in a coma, Kate psychically knew where a kidnapped boy was, leading the press, police and some of her family to label her a freak and drive her into seclusion. Her abilities are linked to anyone she comes in contact with, so she limits the people pool by staying with her mom and pretends she’s agoraphobic, not psychic. It’s worked pretty well until the day she lets a gorgeous guy into her house. It’s always the cute ones that cause trouble.

Detective Gorgeous Guy, aka Jared Corbett, has heard about Kate’s psychic episode that led to finding the little boy and he wants her to help him find his girlfriend’s sister. In spite of her mother’s attempt at civility with him, Kate is grouchy, sarcastic and does a lot of muttering under her breath. I adore this girl. *sniff* She really doesn’t want to deal with exposing herself to anyone else again, but of course when Jared dangled a picture of cute little Cori in front of her, she grabbed it.

Kate seemed much younger than her twenty-one years, or even the nineteen she was when she started hiding out at her mom’s house. Her crush on Jared was very awkward and one of the few things in the story that was sort of weird to me since she acted twelve around him and he acted about ten around her (he’s in his late twenties). I loved her snarky, crabby, snotty, funny personality and that the author didn’t try to make her super-psychic woman. She was vulnerable and got some unwanted personal crapola visions along with some hysterical ones. I’m not convinced a potential relationship with Jared is a great thing for her yet. I think they need to percolate a lot more.

Romance-y plot aside, I enjoyed the psychic story a lot. The suspense was done well and left me guessing who the kidnapper was (I was wrong) and what their motive could be (ditto). There wasn’t a cliffhanger, but the way things ended, if I hadn’t already known there were more books, I’d have been on the lookout for them. There’s a lot of potential for Kate ahead.

This was a fast, easy read just assuming it was a standalone, but when I thought of it as the first book in a series and considered the characters as works in progress, it really made me appreciate the story and helped me go with the flow when something bugged me. Even though I think she has some growing up to do, I loved Kate in all of her snarky, dorky glory (try saying that three times fast, I dare you) and can’t wait to pick up the next three books.

My Rating: B+

Heather Topham Wood’s obsession with novels began in childhood while growing up in a shore town in New Jersey. Writing since her teens, she recently returned to penning novels after a successful career as a freelance writer. In 2012, she published the first two novels in her Second Sight series: First Visions and New Revelations.

Heather graduated from the College of New Jersey in 2005 and holds a bachelor’s degree in English. Her freelance work has appeared in publications such as USA Today, Livestrong.com, Outlook by the Bay and Step in Style magazine. She resides in Trenton, New Jersey with her husband and two sons. Besides writing, Heather is a pop culture fanatic and has an obsession with supernatural novels and TV shows.

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