Glimmer by Stacey Wallace Benefiel Review

Title: Glimmer
Series: Zellie Wells (Book 2)
Author: Stacey Wallace Benefiel
Published: September 24, 2012
Pages: 260
Format: audiobook
Source: Received from author for an honest review

Summary (Goodreads):
Zellie Wells’ life is changing. Her relationship with Avery is growing stronger every day, but their parents are still giving them ultimatums and trying to keep them apart. Her newly discovered powers have all but disappeared. Benjamin, another young Retroact, is back and has brought with him a painful shared vision and a troubled past. While working together to figure out what the vision means, Zellie discovers that Benjamin is a worthy friend and mentor. If only he could keep his hands off of her-if only she wanted him to…

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The second book is the Zellie Wells trilogy takes off with more of the paranormal than book one. While the first book seemed more contemporary to begin with, there is no mistaking that Glimmer is a paranormal novel. Glimmer continues Zellie’s growth as she learns more about her powers and the mysterious Ben who crashed her first solo rewind. I absolutely loved the addition of Ben to this storyline, he’s fun, attractive, and a good addition to the group.

I found that Glimmer had lots of twists that I didn’t expect which was kind of fun. I don’t want to spoil anything but I will say that there was some neat powers introduced in this book. There was also a focus on LGBT issues that wasn’t expected. Although I didn’t find this enough to turn me away from the series (because sometimes books can start to feel preachy about these things) it may be something others won’t like. I think the biggest surprise for me was the context. Zellie grew up in a Christian home and seeing how she reacts to these developments is interesting (and good, kudos to the author). On the downside Zellie’s parents were SO annoying in this book. Granted that is a big part of the story but seriously, I hated them while listening to this story. I even hated Zellie’s dad who I had loved in the first book.

Glimmer was an excellent transition from the first book to the third and even though it took me FOREVER to write this review I am really looking forward to finally starting book three tomorrow on my drive. And by writing this review I am already recalling a bunch of what happened in Glimmer which is another indicator that this was a good book. It stuck with me! Overall, I really enjoyed this second addition to the series.

This post originally published on February 20, 2014. I’ve updated it for your viewing pleasure.