Review: Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
Published: January 8, 2013
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 306
My Rating:  3 of 5 stars

Synopsis: The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.

Paper Valentine is a hauntingly poetic tale of love and death by the New York Times bestselling author of The Replacement and The Space Between.

My Review: The first couple pages were amazing. I mean ghosts and murder? Doesn't that sound interesting? Too bad it wasn't all about the murder.

The characters were kind of average, except for Lillian but I'll get to her later. I have mixed feelings about the main character, Hannah. There was nothing about her that made me dislike her, but I wasn't exactly rooting for her either. The not so average thing about Hannah is that she can see ghosts. This is never really explained, but that didn't really bother me too much. Basically Hannah is haunted by her dead best friend.

I feel like the romance was just not needed. Finny was the typical bad boy and of course Hannah falls in love with him.Their relationship didn't add anything to the story for me, it was just kind of there and I tolerated it...kind of. The murders were way more important than the romance, but guess which one trumped the other? That's right, the romance. 

But the romance didn't take center stage either. Instead I think that this book was mostly about Hannah dealing with the loss of her best friend, Lillian. Lillian had anorexia and Hannah did practically nothing to help her best friend get better. Even though Lillian's dead she still has a huge influence on Hannah and on their other friends.

I wish the murders had been more important to the story. The ending felt so rushed and it was really obvious (to me) who the murderer was. At first I had no idea who the murderer was, but when I started thinking about it I was able to figure it out pretty quick. 

Overall I I liked Paper Valentine but I didn't think it was anything special. I was looking for a murder mystery but instead I got something else.